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CRAYON SKETCHES 



iff-f an^ Cahings, 



DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN STATESMEN, ORATORS, 

DIVINES, ESSAYISTS, EDITORS, POETS, 

AND PHILANTHROPISTS. 



B Y 

GEORGE ^V; BUNGAY. 



Some are born great, some achieve greatness, — 
And some liavc greatness thrust upon them. 

SUAKSPEARE. 



BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED BY STACY AND RICHARDSON, 



No. 11 :\IiLK Street. 



185 2. ^y\ 






Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year Eighteen Hundred and Fifty-Two, 

BY GEORGE W. BUNGAT, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



boston: 

Stacg anil Bicfi.irtison, printers. 
No. U Milk Street. 



f^f 



^f 



INTRODUCTION. 



It was in the Spring of 1850 that the author of the following 
Sketches called, one day, into the office of the New-Englander, in 
Boston, (whither he was then much accustomed to resort,) and dur- 
ing a conversation which ensued with the editors of that sheet, — 
then somewhat known in this vicinity as a temperance, literary, and 
family journal, — the subject of the preparation of a series of articles 
on the prominent men of the day was discussed, and favorably enter- 
tained. The author's previous effusions had been marked with a good 
deal of pith and piquancy, and the conductors of the New-Enrjlander 
considered that an highly interesting feature would be added to their 
paper by his regular contril)utions, wi-itten in the free and cordial 
manner which was his wont. 

Nor were their expectations disappointed. Mr. Bungay's pur- 
suits having, at different periods, brought him in connection with 
many of the leading men of our countiy, — possessing a mind unu- 
sually weU refreshed with the thoughts of our best writers, both in 
prose and verse, — and, withal, being himself a man of earnest and 
kindly sympathies, he was in every respect qualified for the task he 
had assumed. It had been previously perceived, in Mr. Bungay's 
occasional newspaper effusions, that he was gifted more particu- 
larly with the power of terse, graphic, off-hand, sententious remark, 
than with that of elaborate description, or polished finish and orna- 



IV INTRODUCTION'. 

ment. Tliis he himself acknowledged ; and thus, by general con- 
sent, he styled his productions in this line, "Off-Hand Takixgs," 
and assumed the art-word of " Crayon," as the most appropriate 
signature for one whose light and dark shades upon the pictures 
of his imagination were so agreeably diversified. 

AVith a heart and a pride in the work, therefore, the author of 
the following Sketches entered upon his task; and to his credit, it 
must be said, he immediately won a popularity which many have 
envied, and but few attained. An increased demand for copies of 
the paper was quickly perceptible ; contemporaneous journals, it was 
observed, freely copied his articles ; and, in brief, all the customary 
indications were had that Mr. Bungay had made a successful essay 
in his projected enterprise, while the editors of the Neiv-Enghnder 
became the recipients of many tlianks for affording the medium 
through which he had thus successfully commtmicated with the public. 

The following work contains nearly all the Sketches which ap- 
peared in tlie New Euglander, a few others written more lately for 
different journals, and a still less number prepared expressly for this 
edition. Each has been carefully revised, all redundancy of language 
or thought omitted, any jn-evious accidental misinformation corrected, 
and, in point of accuracy and applicability to their subjects, made 
pertinent to their present pursuits and the current hour. It will be 
found, it is trusted, that a recognizable delineation of many of the 
public characters of the nation, — the "representative men" of their 
respective classes, — has been faithfully and impartially given. 

As to the manner in which Mr. Bungay has executed the self- 
assumed trust, as a noter and critic of "men and measures," the 
work itself is doubtless the best commentator. With a long and 
successful experience as a popular advocate of the temperance and 
other reforms, favored with an enlarged comprehension of the true 
sphere of individual usefulness, and uniting in his person a well- 
developed poetic temperament and original imagination, — with a 



INTRODUCTION. V 

hearty interest in all that elevates and adonis human existence, — it 
is not surprising that his Sketches, wliilc tliey are like none otlier 
in readable excellence and vivid portraiture, should Ije permeated 
with his warm, generous sympathies, and partake cons])icuously of 
his purest heart-aspirations. Thinking thus, his prcfacer commits 
the little work to the favor of the public. 

• c. w. s. 

BosTOx, April. 1852. 



CONTENTS. 

•■***© ^9 * *^ ** 

Page. 

George N. Briggs, 9 

John P. Hale, 13 

RUFUS ClIOATE, 17 

Horace Mann, 20 

Ealph Waldo Emerson, 24 

Horace Greeley, 29 

Theodore Parker, 33 

John G. "Whittier, 38 

Neal Dow, 43 

Gerritt Smith, 47 

" Abbott Lawrence, 52 

Wendell Phillips, 55 

Philip S. White, 60 

John Van Bdren, . . .65 

William A. White, 69 

Edwin H. Chapin, 72 

Charles C. Burleigh, 76 

William H. Seward, 79 

Daniel Webster, 82 

Charles Sumner, 86 

Moses Grant, 91 

John B. Gough, 94 



Vlll CONTEXTS. 

rage. 

Lemis Cass, ,99 

Fkaxcis Tukey, 101 

William R. Stacy, 103 

EnzuR "Wright, 106 

John M. Spear, 109 

John Augustus, 112 

Father Taylor, 114 

Elihu Burritt, 117 

TiiuRLOAV Weed Brown, 124 

Edward Beeciier, 127 

Henry Ward Beeciier, 131 

Massachusetts State Officials, 134 



Crin)0ii ^futcljcs, 



AND 



OFF-HAND TAKINGS 



GEORGE N. BRIGGS. 

The lives of great men all remind us 

We may make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 

Foot-prints on tlie sands of time. 

Longfellow. 

His Excellency, George N. Briggs, is an American 
nobleman in the full-orbed manhood of life. He is robust, 
of broad build and medium height. His eyes are blue, and 
his brown hair is tinged with the frost of more than fifty 
winters. His forehead is wide and high, and indicates more 
than a mediocrity of intellect, and his countenance is of a 
serious and thoughtful cast. He di-esses plainly, and never 
wears a collar above his cravat. "We attribute this freak of 
taste to his innate love of liberty. He certainly is unlike 
the drunkard who was such an ultra republican he would 
not wear a crown in his hat. He belongs to the Baptist 
church, and is one of its most efficient and influential mem- 
bers. He takes a deep and lively interest in the religious 
and reformatory movements of the age. In the temperance 
1 



10 CRATON SKETCHES. 

ranks he has fought many battles and gained many victories. 
When forgotten as Governor of the glorious old Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, he will be gratefully remembered 
as having been a successful champion of the temperance 
enterprise. 

Gov. Briggs recently manifested a disposition to secure 
further legislation on the subject of temperance, and he did 
not handle that question as good old Izaak Walton did the 
frog he used for a bait, touching it tenderly, as though he 
would put the hook into his mouth without hurting it. In 
this Avay he disi^leased the publicans and sinners more than 
he did the friends of the total abstinence cause. lie is 
always right on this question, and deserves gi-eat credit for 
his devotion to the principles of the pledge, and his cour- 
ageous advocacy of its doctrines. It is difficult for a 
politician to be a philanthropist, but he is more of the latter 
than the former. He is not a bogus republican, friendly on 
election days and forgetful at other times. He is not a 
hypocrite, who spreads palm-leaves in the path of Jesus 
when he is popular in Jerusalem, and denies him after he 
is nailed to the cross. He believes men live in the deeds 
they do, and not in the noise they make ; in the thoughts 
they have, and not in the breaths they draw; in the 
beatings of a good heart, and not in the throbbings of a 
gold repeater. 

When the Hon. Edward Everett delivered the eulogy on 
the death of the lamented Adams, every little great man in 
the city, who had an opportunity to make a display, was 
bedizened with the tinselry, jewelry and regalia of office ; 
but the Governor, who is a wise man and a good man, wore 
a plain citizen's dress, marked with a simple badge of 
mourning. He knows that birth, genius, talent, learning, 
wealth and personal attractions do not alone make one man 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 11 

better than another. A man may carry a silver-headed 
cane and wear a wooden head. He may learn the time he 
squanders from a gold watch, while his heart is as corrupt 
as a nest of unclean birds. He may have a soft hand at 
one end of his arm and a softer head at the other. A fool 
with a fortune is pretty sure to clothe his back more than he 
cultivates his brains. 

Governor Briggs was apprenticed to the hatting business 
at an early j^eriod of his life, and although he afterwards 
became a lawyer, he never treated working men with disre- 
spect. He loves to grasp the hand hardened by toil, and 
whether a man's face be bronzed at the plough or bleached 
in the mill, whether he be clad in ruffles or in rags, he is 
sure to meet with a warm and welcome and unostentatious 
reception when introduced to George N. Briggs. He is not 
so eminent a lawyer as he is a Governor, although he is 
considered an Aristides in his profession. He is an attract- 
ive speaker, and is always ready on all suitable occasions 
to give free utterance to his manly sentiments. He is more 
fluent than eloquent, more solid than brilliant, more inclined 
to labor arguments and relate facts than to round periods 
and polish sentences. When his voice is not hoarse, and 
his mind is roused, he will occasionally thrill the heart like 
a blast from a trumpet. 

During his stay in Congress he organized a Congi'essional 
Temperance Society, which did a vast amount of good, but, 
unfortunately, it died out soon after he returned to Massa- 
chusetts. In the Sabbath School this distinguished man is 
" at home." Let the nobles of the land copy his example 
in this respect, and make themselves useful in their day and 
generation. 

Governor Briggs has, among his political opponents, many 
personal friends. He doubtless has imperfections, but few 



12 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

public men have less. It is said that he has exercised too 
much clemency toward convicts whom he has pardoned ; if 
this be a fault it bears toward the side of virtue. Some 
think his course respecting the Mexican war reprehensible, 
but this is not the time nor the place to investigate that mat- 
ter. Some complain that he has not sufficiently imbibed the 
spirit of anti-slavery, but as we are not all organized, nor 
educated, nor situated alike, we must make some allowance 
for differences of opinion. "Whatever may be the opinion 
of some, he will long be remembered as a consistent Chris- 
tian, and the model Governor of the Old Bay State. 



JOHN P. HALE. 



John P. Hale is a free-and-easy, fat-aod-social man, 
who can relish a dish of oysters, or a good joke, as well as 
any member of the Senate. He has the courage of Crom- 
well, and the fun of Falstaff. He has a strong hand at one 
end of his arm, and a strong head at the other. When he 
shakes the former, you feel a heart throbbing in the palm ; 
when he shakes the latter, it is the signal of a storm that 
will hail (Hale) for the space of an hour, and every stone 
will be the weight of a talent. 

Foote may rave and foam, and threaten to hang Hale, his 
genial and generous fellow Senator, on the tallest tree in 
Mississippi ; but there will be a response so apropos, so full 
of humor, from such a sunshiny countenance, the peppery 
Mississippian will be ashamed of his impotent imprecations. 
There is more thunder and lightning in the crack of Hale's 
joke, than there is punislmient in the crack of Foote's pistol. 
The pungent Avit of the former is more destructive than the 
exploding powder of the latter. The sarcasm and irony of 
the Northerner is more dreaded than the sulphur and salt- 
petre of the Southerner. The cool man of " Granite " is 
more than a match for the choleric representative of 
" Cotton." The small sword of wit cuts deeper than the 
bowie-knife of wrath. Foote is a middle-aged gentleman, 
1* 



14 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

with a bald head, sear face, shrunken limbs, and restless 
manners, and so ignitable it is a wonder he had not caught 
fire and burnt up long ago. Hale is in the prime of life, 
broad shouldered, broad chested, and stout limbed, and he has 
such control over his temper he never forgets to be courte- 
ous, even to those who permit passion to rule reason, while 
they sink the glorious dignity of the statesman to the glad- 
iatorial level of the blackguard and the bully. Hale can 
flog the powdery Senator in debate, and fling him out of the 
window of the Capitol afterwards, as Commodus threw 
Oleander out of the Roman palace. 

Foote has the most finished education. Hale the most 
practical sense ; Foote has read history and is familiar with 
the past. Hale has associated with the people and knows the 
necessities of the present ; Foote understands parliamentary 
usages. Hale observes the rules of the Senate ; Foote is 
nervous, furious and vituperative, Hale is pleasant, manly 
and earnest ; Foote has the rasping severity of Randolph, 
without his glowing eloquence ; the brilliancy of Lee, with- 
out his chaste dignity ; Hale has the self-reliance of Benton, 
without, perhaps, his general information. The former is a 
Cavalier, the latter a Roundhead. One would have fought 
to the death for King Charles, the other would have united 
with republican Oliver ; one is of the South so extreme as 
to be tropical, the other of the North so distant as to be 
frio'id. When that great Nebuchadnezzar, the Compromise 
Bill, with its head of gold, (without brains,) its l)rea,st of 
brass, (without a heart,) its legs of iron, (without stal)ility,) 
its feet of Gay, (without a foothold,) was set up, Mr. Hale 
refused to bow before it ; consequently, he was bound hand 
and feet, and cast into the heated furnace, but he came out 
without the smell of fire upon his gannents. During the 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 15 

last session of the Senate he was like Daniel (not the 
Webster) in the lion's den, but lie remained uninjured, 
although there was no angel present to keep the mouths of 
the animals closed. 

Mr. Hale is a man whose telescopic discernment enables 
him to discover danger at a distance, and when unwise or 
reckless statesmen plot the ruin of the nation, he sends up 
a rocket so that its shower of sparks, sheet of fire, and 
startling report, may attract the attention of the people. 
When that infamous Compromise Bill was before the Senate, 
he frequently fired an alarm gun, to warn his constituents 
and his countrymen. Although he is constitutionally indo- 
lent, when his mercury is made to rise to the blood heat of 
excitement he is a giant, and ordinary men are like grass- 
hoppers in his hands. He has not genius to originate, 
neither does he display much oratorical skill ; but his words 
drop at the right time and in the right place, as the seed 
fa,lls from the hands of the sower into the furrow. He puts 
new wine into old bottles, and bursts them. He is a man for 
the times, and speaks the language as well as the sentiments 
of the masses. The man bleached in the factory, and the 
man bronzed in the foundry, understand him without the 
aid of an interpreter. 

Mr. Hale is sociable and affable in his manners, hearty 
and pleasant in his address. He has the courage to patron- 
ize and defend whatever is designed to promote the welfare 
of the human race, and the firmness to remain the unfalter- 
ing friend to humanity. He speaks fluently and feelingly, 
and his style and sentiment are both forcible and persuasive. 
He is a man of foresight and sagacity, and keeps pace with 
the march of progress. He speaks in behalf of the African 
race, and pleads for the Abstinence cause. 



16 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

In personal appearance, Mr. Hale is a large, stout man, 
somewhat inclined to corpulency ; has a full, healthy, rosy 
face ; dark hair, touched with frost ; blue eyes, beaming 
with mirtlifulness ; an ample chest swelling with a generous 
heart, and shoulders strong enough to bear the cross of 
his party. 



RUFUS CHOATE. 

EuFUS Choate is the Brougham of the "Western World. 
He is not so profound a metaphysician or so great a philoso- 
pher as the English Lord ; but he is equally eloquent, and 
there is more lightning in his thunder. Wlien he sjjeaks, 
his black eyes glow with electricity, his hair stands erect as 
though his head were a galvanic battery, charging each 
individual hair with the subtile fluid. He is furious as a 
madman in his gestures, and not unfrequently tears his coat 
from the collar to the waist, when he becomes intensely 
excited. He walks from one end of the platform to the 
other, and swings his arms backwards and forwards as 
though he intended to take a leap into the middle of the 
room and land upon the heads of his hearers. If he ever 
should take a hop-step and jump, in the midst of one of his 
orations, there would be danger of his tumbling down the 
throats of some of the gaping multitude, whose mouths are 
ever open to swallow every syllable he utters. No wonder 
the people gape and gaze with such astonishment and admi- 
ration, for he has such a beautiful gallery of pictures in the 
chambers of his imagination — such an affluence of lan- 
guage — so retentive a memory — such varied learning — 
such luminous eloquence and eccentric a manner of deliv- 
ery. Often, when he fuiishes a period in his most energetic 
style, the listener involuntarily looks up to see if the fiery 



18 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 



bolt just launched from his lips, has not raised the roof, or 
at least gone through the ceiling. It is as difficult to report 
his speeches, as it would be to report the trumpetings of the 
storm, with the moaning wind, the pattering rain, the vivid 
lightnings and the crashing of the thunders. He begins 
like an eagle soaring from his eyrie, and continues his 
upward flight over the mountain tops, up higher and still 
higher, and higher still, with the clouds under his feet and a 
crown of stai's about his head ; and when he descends, he 
shines like Moses coming down from the mountain, and like 
liim, he breaks the Commandments when he finds the peo- 
ple worshipping the idol of another party. You may talk 
about torrents of eloquence — he is the very Niagara of 
eloquence, with the silver spray, the effulgent bow, and the 
wasteless waters foaming and flashing through a narrow 
channel of rods. His speeches are brilliant with un- 
measured poetry, and abound in attic wit, biting invective, 
glowing rhetoric, and logic on fire. " He can hew out a 
Colossus from a rock, or carve heads on cherry stones." He 
is not a glancing, dancing stream, fettered with ice half the 
year ; but a magnificent and mighty river, runniny South ; 
and as he sweeps on, he swallows up allusions, quotations, 
figures, from Hesiod, and Homer, and Virgil, and Voltaire, 
and Shakspeare, and jSIilton, and Washington and Webster, 
still flowing on, 



" Like to the rontic Sea, 
Whose current ami compulsive course 
Kevcr feels retiring ebb, but liceps right on 
To the Propontlc and the Hellespont." 



To drop the figure and take up tlie liK't, he has ijitensity of 
purpose, and often allows his impulsiveness to control his 
judgment. Every great effort he makes at the Bar or on 
the rostrum, so excites his nervous system iliat he cannot 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 19 

sleep sufficiently to satisfy the wants of his physical nature. 
But he is fond of fame and of money, and seems determined 
to keep up his reputation and his revenue ; consequently his 
services are available when fair opportunities are afforded 
for the improvement of either. His speeches sound better 
than they read. Indeed, it would not be gratifying to the 
vanity of himself or his numerous friends to pass his extem- 
poraneous speeches through the crucible of criticism. He 
skips from one topic to another with the agility of a squirrel, 
a fact unnoticed amid the blaze of his surpassing eloquence, 
until the storm has passed by and the fever is over, and then 
we behold the best a reporter can do in the columns of the 
newspaper. 

Mr. Choate is a dark complexioned, thin, cadaverous look- 
ing man, with keen black eyes, aud a profusion of unkempt 
hair of a glossy black hue. He is between forty and fifty 
years of age, and of a nervous billious temperament. He 
is a conservative Whig of the "Webster school, and has made 
eloquent speeches recently upon the leading political ques- 
tions of the day. As the Scotch orator once said, I have 
" neither time nor space " to amplify this hastily written 
sketch, and will conclude with the remark that Mr. Choate 
is one of the most popular orators of modern times. We 
have abler lawyers in America, but the Bar has not a more 
brilHant and successful advocate. We have more ex- 
perienced statesmen, but few serve their country with more 
fervid zeal. It is indeed a rich treat to listen to the gor- 
geous words which drop from his lips like apples of gold in 
pictures of silver. 



HORACE MANN. 



The name and fame of the distinguislied subject of this 
sketch are world-wide. He is known, honored and appre- 
ciated as the promoter of education and the defender of the 
oppressed. The mantle dropped by the lamented Adams 
sits gracefully upon his shoulders. He is eminent as a 
writer, a speaker, a scholar and a statesman. His essays 
and his speeches command the attention and win the admi- 
ration of all who read or hear them. He never fails to get 
the eyes and ears, if not the hearts, of his hearers, whether 
they be little children in a common school, or larger ones in 
Congress. He is a prophet who hath honor in his own and 
other countries. Tlie first time tlic writer saw him, was at 
the opening of a primary school in Boston. Several prom- 
inent men had spoken to the children present, in unintelligi- 
ble language ; in fact, they spoke to the youths as they were 
accustomed to speak to adults. By-and-by, a tall, thin, 
graceful man, with a high forehead and silvery hair, arose 
in one corner of the room, and in a familiar manner asked 
the children to let him see their red lips and bright eyes. 
In a moment a sea of sunny fiices was turned toward him. 
He told them to persevere in the acquisition of knowledge, 
and asked them if they ever saw a honey-bee go out from 
its hive on a May morning in pursuit of its sweets. They 
said they had seen the bee on his tour among the flowers. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 21 

" Now," continued the speaker, " when he comes from the 
leaves he does not bring a whole hive on his back, but he 
flies home with a little at a time." The children were 
intensely interested in his stories, comparisons, allusions and 
admonitions. 

The next time I saw this prominent and popular Mann, 
was at the dedication of a grammar school in Boston. 
Many of the first citizens were present, and listened with 
delight to his extemporaneous and appropriate speech. His 
tongue is like the pen of a ready writer. It costs him little 
or no eflfort to round a period handsomely, or polish a sen- 
tence until it becomes transparent with beauty, and as for 
grammatical inaccuracies, even in his impromptu efforts, 
they are out of the question. Last Winter he delivered the 
introductory lecture before the Mercantile Library Associa- 
tion. Tremont Temple was packed, from the orchestra to 
the entrance. Many persons were obliged to leave the 
crowded doors for want of accommodation. After the usual 
preliminaries, the orator appeared on the platform and was 
warmly greeted by the vast audience. He commenced at 
once by leaping, at a single bound, into the middle of his 
thesis, and he addressed the young merchants in a strain of 
surpassing power and eloquence. The last survivor of 
that large assembly cannot outlive the impression that 
masterly effort made on every appreciating mind. He 
spoke forcibly, rapidly, emphatically. Wit, humor, pathos, 
irony, argument, flowed from his lips as freely as water 
from an unfailing fountain. Those who cany their souls in 
the sacs of their stomachs, and those who carry their hearts 
in their breeches-pockets, were shown up as Marshal Tukey 
exhibits the light-fingered gentlemen who sometimes visit 
the City of Notions. He did not spare the wine-bottle nor 
the tobacco-box, the coffee-pot nor the tea-kettle. He pro- 
2 



22 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

nounced woes against those Avho will not breathe pure air, 
and drink cold water, and eat plain food, and sleep on hard 
beds in ventilated rooms. He has a stout heart and a strong 
hand, and the wliip he holds over the backs of gluttons and 
imbibers has a silver lash and a golden handle, and although 
every blow reaches the red, the wounded and the whipped 
save their lamentations for the secret chamber where they 
sit upon the stool of repentance. 

If it be true that New England is further from perdition 
and nearer paradise than any other portion of America, it is 
owing to the superiority of her public schools. Horace 
Mann has done more than any other person to elevate the 
educational advantages of New England. His praise is in 
all the schools. His system of instruction is almost univer- 
sally adopted. The moral atmosphere of Washington is 
sure to spoil the principles of some men whom the multi- 
tude delight to honor. Not so with Horace Mann. He 
does not wear a double face. He does not blow hot and 
cold in the same breath. He does not amend, abridge or 
alter liis speeches to suit the latitude in which he lives. 
Even the Hercules of the Senate, the mighty Expounder of 
the Constitution, has felt the weight of his arm and stag- 
gered under the force of his blow. Horace Mann not only 
goes for free soil and free men, but for free air and the free 
use of cold water. He is liberal-minded, generous-hearted, 
dignified in his deportment, genteel in his address, and 
his character is like Ciwsar's wife, above suspicion. He is 
not only admired, but really beloved, by his friends, acquaint- 
ances and constituents. 

Phrenologically speaking, he has a classical face and 
forehead. The organ of benevolence is prominently devel- 
oped, as are the organs of causality, comparison, ideality 
and sublimity. He is a poet, although he may not have 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 23 

exhibited any symptoms of that soi't in rhyme. In his hap- 
piest eiForts before an audience, he often leads them high up 
the mountain so that they may see the promised land where 
the nations shall dwell in the good time coming. 

Mr. Mann is a cogent reasoner, a deep thinker, a ready 
debater, an elegant writer, a splendid speaker. There is a 
little lisping impediment on his tongue until he becomes ex- 
cited. Anti-progress men cannot bribe him, nor scare him, 
nor gag him, nor cope witli him at the press or in the forum. 
He is remarkable for his originality, and his ideas are like 
pictures painted on glass by those ancients who had the art, 
now lost, of making the colors penetrate the surface so that 
the object appeared as vividly on one side as the other. He 
may be called a " proverbial philosopher," a prose poet, a 
sayer as well as a doer of good things. Some of the " old 
liners " in literatui'e and theology, do not approve his liberal 
sentiments. They have not the courage to assail him 
openly, but they damn him with faint praise in private 
circles. He is apt to indulge a taste for alliteration. It is 
almost the only blemish in his essays and speeches. There 
is no man in New England so well qualified in every 
respect to occupy the post of honor and duty rendered 
vacant by the death of John Quincy Adams, as he. 



RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 



Ealpii Waldo Emerson is one of tlie most erratic and 
capricious men in America. Some of the wiseacres who at 
first declared him a will-o'-the-wisp, have long since made 
the discovery that he is a fiery comet of the first magnitude, 
sweeping through the heavens, and eclipsing the glory of 
some of the fixed stars in our literary firmament. He is 
emphatically a democrat of the world, and believes that what 
Plato thought another man may think, what Paul felt 
another man may feel, what Shakspeare sang others may 
know to be true. As for popes, emperors, kings, queens, 
princes, and presidents, he looks upon them as grown-up 
children in masquerade, — uncrown them, disrobe them, and 
bring them on a fair level with their fellow beings, and their 
superiors may be found among their subjects. In his essay 
on Self-Reliance, he says : — " Our reading is mendicant 
and sycophantic in history, our imagination makes fools of 
us, plays us false. Kingdom and lordshij), power and estate, 
are a gaudier vocabulary than private John or Edward in a 
small house and conmion days' works, but tlie things of life 
are the same to both. Why all this deference to Alfred and 
Scandei;berg and Gustavus ? Sujjpose they were virtuous, 
did they wear out virtue ? " He has no patience with the 
chicken-hearted who have to refer to mouldy records and old 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 25 

almanacks to ascertain if they may say their souls are their 
own. We overlook present good in our insane attempts to 
pry into the mysteries of the dai-k past. "We put the past 
in fi'ont of our faces, instead of keeping it beliind our backs, 
where it legitimately belongs. Hear him : — " He dare not 
say I think I am, but quotes some saint or sage. He is 
ashamed before the blade of grass or blowing rose. These 
roses under my window make no reference to former roses, 
or to better ones ; they are for what they are ; they exist 
with God to day." " But man postpones or remembers ; he 
does not live in the present, but with reverted eye laments 
the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround him, stands 
on tip-toe to foresee the future." 

This idealistic philosopher and Titian thinker is not san- 
guine in his hopes of progress. He has the impression that 
men say " go," and stand still ; that radicals shout " reform," 
and do not improve themselves ; that many Christians go to 
church for the same reason that the multitude went into the 
wilderness. If society improves here, it retrogrades there ; 
when the tide of prosperity flows in one place, it ebbs in 
another. We have maps, charts, books and globes, but 
neglect to study the beautiful earth and the bright heavens. 
We go fast, (even by steam,) but what we have gained in 
speed we have lost in sti-ength ; we have acquired a knowl- 
edge of science and sacrificed our health ; the telegraph is 
our " errand-boy," and we die for the lack of exercise ; we 
lose our roses in our teens, and grow grey in the mornuig of 
life. If we are wiser, we are also older than our fathers 
were at twice our age. We gape and gaze at every novelty 
that comes before us. A quack with his nostrums, a priest 
with his nonsense say to us, " Shut your eyes, open your 
mouth, and swallow ; " and we, like boa-constrictors, swallow 
2* 



26 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

the whole, and then mistake an undigested stomach-full for 
a heart-fulL 

]VIi\ Emerson is a terse, vivid and graphic Avriter. Some- 
times there is a gloAV of poetry behind a veil of mist in his 
essays. It is difficult to tell at Avhat he is driving. He is 
often like the sun in a fog ; we know there is light and heat, 
but the vapor hangs like a thin curtain between us and the 
luminary, as though the monarch of the skies was trying to 
hide his spots. He now and then deals in unintelligible 
inversions, inexplicable mysticisms, and seems to shake up 
his disjointed and unsortcd ideas in oUapodiana style, as 
though he designed to give us the " clippings, parings and 
shreds of his thoughts." If Swedenborg be the Shakspeare 
of theology, Emerson is the Swedenborg of philosophy. 
Even his incongruous agglomerations are brilliant as they 
are incomprehensible. Read the folloAving as a specimen of 
that style : — " The Gothic cathedral is a blossoming in 
stone, subdued by the insatiable demand of harmony in man. 
The mountain of granite blooms into an eternal flower, with 
the lightness and delicate finish as well as the atrial propor- 
tions and perspective of vegetable beauty. In like manner 
all public facts are to be individualized, all private facts are 
to. be generalized. Then at once history becomes fluid and 
true, and biography deep and sublime." 

Mr. Emerson is a poetical as well as a prose writer, l)ut 
there is more poetry in his prose than in his poems. In 
Europe he is regarded as the essayist of America. During 
Ids tour through Great Britain, he met with a cordial recep- 
tion, and his lectures were numerously attended. He is by 
some entitled the " Carlyle of Amei-ica," but he is evidently 
a better and a greater man than Carlyle. The puj)il i?; 
wiser tlian the teacher. The chip is larger than the block. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 27 

He has a more opulent intellect, much better taste, and 
higher and holier aims, than the snarling, cynical philosopher 
of the Old World. 

The only time the writer had an opportunity to hear Mr. 
Emerson, was at a mass meeting in Worcester. He was 
invited to speak, and responded with great reluctance, and 
then made a failure. He stammered, halted, blundered, 
hesitated, through a five minutes' speech. The people were 
astonished at his awkwardness. He cannot make an extem- 
poraneous speech. He would not have appeared to such 
great disadvantage, perhaps, had he not followed directly in 
the wake of Wendell Phillips. Mr. Emerson is in the 
prime of life, and is an intellectual-looking man ; has dark 
brown hair, blue eyes, a pale, thoughtful face, not a great 
development of forehead, and is between forty and fifty 
years of age. He is a sociable, accessible, republican sort 
of a man, and a great admirer of nature. Had he been a 
Persian he would have worshipped the sun. He is cele- 
brated the world over as a lyceum lecturer. He is in inde- 
pendent circumstances. He is a strange compound of con- 
tradictions — always right in practice, often right in theory. 
He is a sun, rising in the East and setting in the West, but 
occasionally he alarms and astonishes us by I'ising and shin- 
ing at midnight. 

The literary Lilliputians who have endeavored to pin 
Emerson to the earth, find that he is in good standing with 
the gods ; of course, their labors, not of love but of jealousy, 
are lost. He loves his brother man, whether he belongs to 
the green-jacket tribe or the royal family. He looks upon 
the flowers as his friends. 



" The spendthrift crocus, bursting from the mould, 
Kaked and sliivering with its cup of gold," 



28 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

has honey and fragrance for him. Tlie birds are his com- 
panions, and he interprets their warblings. He reads the 
lessons that are stereotyped on the rocks, — in a word, to 
him the world is a book and the sky its blue cover ; deserts 
and oceans are its fly-leaves, and the busy nations the illus- 
trations of the volume. 



HORACE GREELEY. 

The subject of this sketch is the prince of paragraphists 
— the Napoleon of Essayists. For years he has employed 
his talents in winding and unwinding the " tangled yarn " of 
human affairs in Church and State — in Philosophy and 
PoUtics — in Art and Literature. He is the great recording 
secretai'y of this Continent, employed by the masses to take 
notes and print them. His business is to " hold the mirror 
up to Nature, and show the very age and body of the time, 
its form and pressure." He has the pluck to say as an 
editor what he feels as a man — when he forgets that he is 
a politician. It is then that we find truth without conceal- 
ment, and genuine open-heartedness without wire-working 
behind the curtain. It is then he 

' ' Tours out all as plain 

As downright Shipper), or as old Montaigne." 

Notwithstanding his wayward whims — his eccentric man- 
ners — his love of the intangible ideal — liis faith in Four- 
rierism — his responses to spirit rappers — his man-worship 
when Henry Clay is the human god — he is still the model 
Editor and the leader of the " press gang ; " and the columns 
of The Tribune afford a panoramic view of the American 
world as it is. Greeley is a pen pugilist, (but never a bully,) 



30 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

and woe betide the unlucky wight that begins the assault. 
Is he a clergyman? — then duodecimos, octavos and quartos 
of ecclesiastical history will be hurled at his head, and he 
cannot dodge them though he makes a coward's castle of the 
pulpit. Is he a political man ? — then he must be right, or 
he will be flaggellated, if he ventures to measure lances with 
one who is a walking register and familiar with every impor- 
tant political event that has transpired for the last twenty 
years. He has more than a usual knowledge of the past. 
His writings embrace every variety of style, classic beauty, 
exquisite poetry, graphic description, vapid commonplace, 
the full sun-blaze of originality, the moon in the mist, and 
the ignis fatuus light of whimsical nonsense. It is but 
just, however, to say, that he rarely troubles his readers with 
verbiage or pedantry. He gives us his immediate impres- 
sions of things, and his style depends somewhat upon the 
state of his health and the leisure at his disposal. He does 
not stop to tack on syllables to make a sentence even, nor 
measure pei'iods so that they will be as mathematically cor- 
rect as the vibrations of a ])endulum ; but he dashes on, 
heedless of consequences. His widely circulated journal 
contains good specimens of acute wit, critical reasoning, solid 
argument, brilliant invective, profound philosophy, beautiful 
poetry, and moving elocpience, mixed with the opposites of 
these. 

Mr. Greeley is entirely free from heartless bigotry or 
liypocritical obstinacy. He is benevolent in his disposition, 
affable and sociable in his manners, often speaks in pub- 
lic, and owing to his fame as a writer, attracts considera- 
ble attention ; but he is always sure to disajq)oint his hear- 
ers, for he has not sullicient elo<iuence as an orator, to buoy 
up the reputation he has won, as a writer. His manner is 
uncouth, his matter often dry, and his person by no means 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 31 

prepossessing. Here permit me to say, that his careless, slip- 
shod, slovenly way of dressing his person, has rendered him 
a man of mark and remark. His white hat and white coat 
have been immortalized, because they are ever worn and 
ever lasting. If this Whig prophet had more dignity and 
more dandyism, he would be less popular with the masses, 
but a great favorite with uppercrustdom. 

Mr, Greeley is a practical printer, and has risen to his 
jjresent eminence by his untiring industry, his unconquerable 
perseverance and extraordinary talents. No man in this 
nation controls public opinion more than he. He is a 
Grand Marshal in the great army of reformers, not afraid 
or ashamed to speak — to commit himself, save when his 
party may suffer by the act. He is a patriot Whig, a phi- 
lanthropic Whig, a temperance Whig, an anti-slavery Wliig, 
a Whig writer, a Whig speaker, the editor of a Whig paper, 
and that jiaper one of the very best in the United States. 

No wonder Mr. Greeley knows so well how to meet the 
wants and wishes of his patrons, ybr he has been in the world 
ever since he was born, and has been in various situations in 
life — canal driver* and member of Congress. Mr. Greeley 
is about forty years of age, of nervous temperament, has a 
large head — too large for his vital organs — a pale complex- 
ion, small eyes sunk under a dumpling forehead, a very 
scanty supply of very soft, white hair, (not grey,) which 
will not grow in front, but makes up the deficiency by a 
patriarchal overgrowth behind. 

When the reader beholds a man with an old white hat 
stuck on the back of the cranium, and leaving the forehead 
bare, a shirt-collar neckerchiefless and unbuttoned, a vest 
which looks as though it had been put on with a pitch-fork, 

* I have been so informed. 



32 CKAYON SKETCHES. 

a pair of trowsers Avith one leg stuck in a coarse boot and 
the other striving in vain to reach the ancle ; a coat that 
seems to have been blown upon his back, and iiockets filled 
with exchange papers — he may bo sure he sees Horace 
Greeley. This gentleman is a dietarian ; eats coarse, plain 
food, drinks nothing but cold water, bathes daily, and sleeps 
upon a hard bed. 

In conclusion, permit me to say, that Mr. Greeley is a 
man whose virtuous life, abstemious habits, generous deeds 
and magnificent talents, entitle him to the admiration of his 
fellow men. 



THEODORE PARKER. 

" This, like a public Inn, provides a treat 
Where each promiscuous guest sits down to eat; 
And such this mental food as we may call 
Something to all men, and to some men all." 

Cbabbe. 

Let the reader imagine it is Sunday morning. The bells 
are tolling, and the good church-going people of Boston are 
wending their way to the various places of worship which 
are open for religious services. Suppose we spend an hour 
this forenoon at the Melodeon, and hear the celebrated 
philanthropist who usually preaches there. 

Mr. Parker is seated in an arm-chair on the platform. 
A Bible and a bunch of flowers are on the desk in front of 
him, and it is difficult to say before-hand from which of the 
two he will select his text. He will doubtless glorify the 
fragrant and beautiful blossoms, and condemn some parts of 
the inspired volume, before he concludes his address. See 
him rise slowly and walk gently toward the desk. He now 
leans upon it, closes his eyes, clasps his hands, and commen- 
ces prayer, in an inaudible voice. Now the hoarse whisper 
becomes a low, murmuring sound. Now you hear words 
and a whole sentence occasionally, and wish you had come 
earlier so as to have obtained a seat nearer the preacher. 
Now, by opening your ears and watching his lips attentively, 
you can hear his prayer ; but if God is not present, there is 
no one there who understands it. It abounds with smart 
3 



34 ' CKAYON SKETCHES. 

maxims, deep philosophical reflections, pious acknowledg- 
ments, earnest invocations, and reverential promises. 

He has taken his text and commenced reading his manu- 
script. His voice is rather husky, and his thick lips seem 
unwilling to part. He now speaks louder and more dis- 
tinctly ; his lead-like eyes begin to glow with genius, and his 
bald head seems to shine transparently with thought, while 
he utters, in choice and classical Enghsh, sentiments so new, 
so strange, so mighty, and so mad with radicalism, incorrigi- 
ble conservatives are offended. He is a moral Columbus, 
who discovers whole continents of thought, and is sure to 
cause mutiny in the ship he sails in, because he ventures so 
far from the dry land on which most men build their hopes. 
Indeed, he is regarded as a theological corsair, and most of 
our great gims have been levelled at him, but he sails on 
uninjured, amid the roar of their opposition, although he 
frequently endangers his own immortal life by mistaking a 
whale's back for a gi-een island. His philosophy and his 
divinity do not agree, for his philosophy is more divine than 
his divinity. He has but little faith in any part of Scripture 
that is not apparently susceptible of interj^retations favora- 
ble to his peculiar views of religious duty, and does not 
hesitate to ridicule those passages which come in collision 
with his " Utopian " doctrines. In this way he unintention- 
ally destroys, in the minds of many, all reverence for 
religion, and obliterates the sense of moral obligation. If 
his hearers were all learned philosophei's, his lectures would 
be invaluable to them ; but they consist of all classes. The 
wise, who sift the wheat from the chaff, may live under his 
teaching, but the mass, who swallow every thing he offers, 
are in danger of suffering all the pangs of spiritual starva- 
tion. 

He is a true and thorough reformer, and advocates with 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 35 

great zeal and gi-eater ability the peace reform, the temper- 
ance reform, the anti-slavery and anti-hanging reforms. In 
the course of his sermon he is sure to apply the rod to 
"Uncle Sam's prize-fighters," the Army and the Navy. 
The old autocrat Alcohol will be flagellated — the South will 
receive a blow here — the church will get a whack there — 
and the gallows will be kicked over yonder. He reminds 
one of the school-masters of ancient times, but he serves 
great men as they did little boys. Statesmen, clergjanen, 
aristocrats, are called up and publicly chastised, if they do 
not say their lessons correctly. A few days ago, Daniel 
Webster had to hold out his hand and feel the ferule — Gen. 
Cass is frequently compelled to stand on the dunce-block at 
the Melodeon — Foote has to wear the cap and bells every 
time he threatens to hang or shoot his fellow Senatox-s — he 
pats Benton on the shoulders by way of encouragement, 
when he speaks for freedom — John P. Hale he thinks is a 
pi-ecocious child of great promise — Ralph Waldo Emerson 
is so far advanced in knowledge, he would employ him as 
usher in his school. 

Mr. Parker's matter is more fascinating than his manner. 
Indeed, he is often awkward in his gestures and indistinct in 
his utterance, but he has the happy faculty of compressing 
a volume of meaning in a few simple words. He never 
appears before an audience without giving his hearers at 
least one di-op of fragrance which contains the concentrated 
essence of a whole garden of roses. 

He is the poor man's friend, although he regards poverty 
as an unmitigated curse, — and would never be like the 
hypocrites who pass by on the other side when humanity is 
prostrate, bleeding, and beseeching help. He has an extra- 
ordinary share of moral courage, and wages war like a hero, 
against the kingdom of scoundreldom. He is fond of the 



36 CKAYON SKETCHES. 

company of the gods, and talks about Mars, Jupiter, Nep- 
tune, as though they had been his school-mates ; is a mod- 
ern among the ancients, an ancient amongst the moderns ; 
will tell you with perfect coolness, that Paul was not so 
good a writer as Socrates ; that Jesus was a perfect man, — 
that by-and-by there will be other men as perfect as Jesus ; 
and that the statutes of Moses are not equal to those of 
Massachusetts. He seems to spurn what he cannot fathom, 
and condemn what he cannot comprehend. He doubts 
whether Christ could perform miracles because he cannot 
perform miracles himself; thinks inspiration is reason mag- 
netized, — the Bible an interesting, but not always relia- 
ble history of the Jews, — the popular religion of the times 
a delusive sham ; loves to trace human progress from 
the barbarous ages to the present time, and then look for- 
ward to a golden future. Were he to manifest more rever- 
ence for the truths of revelation, and show that he placed as 
much faith in God as he does in man, he would, with liis 
varied learning and great talents, accomplish an immeasura- 
ble amount of good ; and many young men who have more 
faith in a newspaper than they have in the New Testament, 
would endorse its sentiments and follow the precepts of that 
heavenly guide. 

Mr. Parker is a chaste and elegant writer, his works are 
widely circulated and read by scholai-s on both continents. 
Although he is denounced as an infidel by his opponents, he 
certainly behaves like a Christian in his private intercourse 
with his fellow men. He thinks there is nothing in the 
world so sacred as man, which accounts for the fact tliat he 
hates flogging in the Navy, and is opposed to hanging, and 
opi)ression, and intemperance, and the butchery of the 
battle-field. 

He is upwards of forty years of age, ratlacr under the 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 37 

medium stature, head large and bald, and liis face dull, until 
he becomes animated before an audience ; is quite popular 
as a lyceum lecturer, and is in great demand during the 
lecturing season. 

The subject of this sketch, though wrong in theory, is 
right in practice, and has courage enough to seize the social 
and public evils by the throat. We, as a community, are 
deeply indebted to liim for his efforts to improve the condi- 
tion of the unfortunate. He " goes " for baths, ventilators, 
hard beds, coarse food, cold water, and cheerfulness, and 
"goes" against tobacco, hot slops, quack medicines, thin shoes, 
and tight lacing; hates bigotry, gluttony, drunkenness, 
poverty, war, and slavery, and loves purity, fidelity, liberty, 
equality, fraternity. He is one of the most learned and 
gifted men in America, and is a better Christian than some 
of his bigoted detractors, who say he is like Noah's carpen- 
ters, who built a ship for other folks to sail in, and yet were 
drowned themselves. 



3* 



JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. 

-*»»©®**«" 

" There," said our driver, " is the birth-place of John G. 
Whittier," when he pointed to a plain farm-house on the 
edge of the town of Haverhill, situated a short walk from 
the roadside, — or, as the poet himself describes the old 
homestead, — " Our farm house was situated in a lonely 
valley, half surrounded with Avoods, with no neighbors in 
sight." 

Soon after my arrival at the busy and beautiful village of 
Amesbury, where the great poet of humanity now lives, I 
ascertained his whereabouts, and gave him a letter of intro- 
duction, written by our mutual friend, W. A. W , an 

untiring co-laborer in the work-field of reform. I found 
him at home, in his modest little Quaker cottage, where his 
friends and visitors are sure to meet with a kind reception. 
On the adjoining lot is another nest in the bushes, where a 
family of singers give vocal utterance to the poetry Whittier 
writes. Mr. W. responded to the rap at the door, and invi- 
ted me to take a chair in a plain, neat room, which com- 
mands a view of a large and beautiful garden, where he 
spends a share of his leisure time, when his health will per- 
mit him to work there. He gave me an introduction to his 
excellent mother, and, after a little chat on the common 
topics of conversation, politely invited me to remain and 
take tea with him. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 



39 



I knew quite well that I was in the presence of one of 
the purest-minded and most gifted men in America; a man 
whose name and fame are world-wide, and "as familiar as 
household words ; " a man whose mighty thoughts are winged 
with words of fire ; but he was so unassuming, so accessible, 
so frank, and so weU "posted up" on aU matters of news, 
that, whatever subject is broached, one feels at home in the 
presence of Vi friend, while conversing with him. This 
emment poet of the slave is about forty years of age. 
His temperament is nervous-bilious; is tall, slender, and 
straight as an Indian ; has a superb head ; his brow looks 
like a white cloud, under his raven hair; eyes large, black 
as sloes, and glowing with expression. He belongs to the 
society of Friends, and in matters of dress and address, he 
is a Quaker of " the strictest sort." Should a stranger meet 
him in the street, with his collarless coat and broad-brimmed 
hat, he would not discover anything remarkable in his ap- 
pearance, certainly would not dream that he had seen the 
Elliott of America. But, let him uncover that head, and see 
those star-like eyes flashing under such a magnificent fore- 
head, and he would know, at a glance, that a great heart, a 
great soul, and a great intellect, must light up such a radiant 
frontispiece. His fellow townsmen are proud of his fame, 
and well they may be, for Amesbury will be known all over 
the world, to the end of time, as the residence of John G. 
Whittier, " the poet of the poor." 

Whei-ever he discovers the talisman of intellect he recog- 
nizes a brother ; " though his skin and bones were of the 
color of night, they are transparent, and the everlasting 
stars shine through them with attractive beams." He knows 
that complexion is not a crime, crisped hair is not a sin, 
thick lips are not a transgression, and he has bared his arms 
to avert the blow that would plough the quivering flesh of 



40 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

the toil-worn slave. He has heard the wail of the distracted 
mother, who, like Rachel, refuses to be comforted because 
her child has been torn from her bosom and sold into hope- 
less servitude, where her eye cannot pity its sorrows, Avhere 
her hand cannot alleviate its distress ; and he has denounced 
such fiendish cruelty with an eloquence and pathos approxi- 
mating to inspiration. He has seen hollow-hearted states- 
men tear the stripes from our flag and put them on the 
backs of our countrymen, and he has spiced sheets that will 
preserve such mummies in the amber and pitch of infamy 
forever. He has seen the fugitive flying from the house of 
bondage, with hunters and blood-hounds on his track in hot 
pursuit, and he has shouted, " God speed the slave ! " until 
lungless echo has repeated the cry on every hill-top of the 
free North. He has seen where tlie red-hot branding-iron 
has been pressed on the shrinking flesh of a freeman's 
hand, until the sizzling blood spouted from the wound, 
and the angel of his muse touched his lips with a 
burning coal from the altar of God, whilst he immortalized 
the patient hero, and annihilated everything but the damna- 
ble infamy of the heartless, soulless persecutors. 

Mr. Whittier is a sincere lover of truth and riglit, and his 
language is, " In vain and long, enduring wrong, the weak 
may strive against the strong, but the day shall yet appear, 
when the might with the right and the truth shall be, and 
come what there may to stand in the way, that day the 
world shall see." (Pardon my drawing the lines into 
prose. I quote from memory, and fear I might do still 
greater injustice to the author by measuring tlie sentiment 
off into verse.) Such men as he, are excluded from the 
South, but slaveholders can no more keep out his sentiments 
than the fool could keep the wind out of the barn -yard by 
closing the gate. Judging by the emotions excited by his 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 41 

writings, we are led to the conclusion that he usually writes 
with tears in his eyes, but a certain magazine publisher, 
whose likeness accompanied one of the numbers of his mag- 
azine, can testify that his satire punishes like the sting of a 
scorpion. Read the following lines : — 



" A moony breadth of virgin face, 

By thought unviolated, 
A patient mouth to take from scorn 

The hook with bank-notes baited,— 
Its self-complacent sleekness shows 

How thrift goes with the fa^^-ner, 
An unctuous unconcern for all, 

Which nice folks call dislionor." 

An eminent statesman will find it difficult to outlive the 
following lines : — 

" So fallen, so lost ! the light withdrawn 
Which once he wore ! 
The glory from his grey hairs gone 
Forever more. 

Let not the land once proud of him 

Insult him now, 
Nor brand with deeper shame his dim. 

Dishonored brow. 

But let its humbled sons instead, • 

From sea to lake, 
A long lament as for the dead, 

In sadness make. 

Then pay the reverence of old days 

To his dead fame ; 
Walk backward with averted gaze, 

And liide the shame." 

Wliittier's poetry is eloquence measured with a golden 
reed, logic on fire, pathos crying in the notes of the nightin- 
gale, philosophy playing on the harp, humor laughing in 
numbers, wit rained down from heaven in a shower of stars. 
His writings are not free from imperfections of style and 



42 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

sentiment ; but men seldom notice pebbles while they look at 
the lights in the cerulean arch above. He is the author of 
several volumes of prose, Avliich are widely circvilated. His 
verses are full of philosophy, beauty, and sublimity. He 
sympathizes with the unfoi'tunate, and chastises the oppressor 
with a whip of adders. In some of his patriotic appeals 
he reminds us of the old prophets. Had Isaiah lived in these 
times, he might have written the following lines without 
impairing his reputation : — 

" Now, by our fathers' ashes ! where's Hie spirit 
Of the true-hearted and the unshackled gone ? 
Sons of the old freemen, do we but inherit 
Their names alone ? 

Is the old rilgrim spirit quenched within us ? 

Stoops the proud manhood of our souls so low 
Tliat mammon's lure or party's wile can win us 
To silence now? 

No ! When our land to ruin's brink is verging, 

In God's name let us speak while there is time ! 
Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging, 
SlLBJiCE IS Cbime! " 

Some of his best poems have been published in beautiful 
style, in Boston lately, but the Avork is so expensive the 
masses are not able to buy it. His writings do not need 
such costly embellishments to be appreciated, any more than 
the sun needs a stained window tlirough which to shine. 
The lark and the nightingale need not the costume of the 
peacock to ensure admiration. Mv. "VYhittier is one of the 
editors of the National Era, and I may say, in whisper, to 
the ladies, he is a — baclielor. 



NEAL DOW. 

The man who has the talent to frame and the courage to 
execute the Maine Law, deserves to be honored and remem- 
bered by every patriot and phihmthropist in our broad free 
land. Neal Dow is the Kossuth of the temperance revoki- 
tion, and his name is already registered in the book of fame, 
"among the few, the immortal names not born to die." 
Poets sing his praise, painters put his shadow on their can- 
vass — historians record his deeds, and multitudes of appre- 
ciating mothers will call their children by his name. 

We wrote pledges, made speeches, obtained signatures, 
formed societies, and framed laws, to suppress intemperance ; 
we tried moral, magnetic, Bible, and ballot-box suasion ; we 
plead, and prayed, and promised, and did incalculable good, 
but failed to accomplish the entire extinction of the rum 
traffic, the object so devoutly desired. We were brought to 
a moral Panama, wiln a gulf of billows rolling between us, 
and a golden California beyond, without bridge or boat to 
carry us safely over to the land of promise, when Neal 
Dow, who understood every rope in the ship, took the helm 
and piloted our storm-beaten vessel into the harbor of 
safety. 

Yes, a private citizen of Maine, possessing the stern will 
and Puritan zeal " of the earlier and better day," arose in 
the dignity of conscious strength, and with the sweep of his 



44 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

• 

Strong arm wiped away the stain of black intemperance from 
the State. Without the aid of the Army or the Navy, he 
routed the most formidable and dangerous enemy that could 
assail the Commonwealth. 

Lean and pallid avarice, haggard appetite, stupid igno- 
rance, bloated bigotry, devilish demagogueism, stood in his 
way, clad to the teeth in armor, but he feared them no more 
than Bunyan's Christian feared the beasts he met on his 
way to the Celestial city. He extinguished the fires of the 
only distillery in the State, and wrote tehel on the walls of 
every wine palace in Maine. "Who is this modern Moses 
who smote the Red Sea with the rod of the law, so that the 
people can travel dry-shod ? He is a man who has a head 
to think, a heart to feel, a tongue to explain, and a hand to 
execute ; is respectably educated, not learned, comfort- 
ably independent, not a millionaire ; speaks conversation- 
ally, not eloquently ; is a plain, practical man, with a 
strong mind and an iron will. Had he lived in the days of 
Cromwell, he would have been a leader in the battered band 
that fought side by side with the " Usurper." He speaks as 
one having authority, and looks like one born to command. 
He is in the meridian of life — about five feet seven inches 
in height, and well proportioned ; has dark hair, a square 
forehead, which does not at first glance indicate more 
than a mediocrity of mind ; eye-brows are rather ponderous, 
cheek bones somewhat prominent, complexion dark. The 
peculiar form of the mouth and chin pronounce him a man 
of obstinate firmness. There is a sort of come on, I am 
ready for you, look about his face, which aftbrds unmistakc- 
ablc evidence that he will not countenance the liquor trade. 
He looks as though he could chase a thousand rum sellers, 
and with the aid of the Maine Law, put ten thousand to 
flight. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 45 

Neal Dow is the son of a Quaker, and surely he fights 
valiantly for one who has been trained to observe the prin- 
ciples of peace. He does not claim religious relationship 
with any sect, but is a firm believer in the truths of Divine 
Revelation, and observes devotional duties in his family. 
For many years he has been identified with the temperance 
movement in Maine, (his native State,) where he has 
labored and lectured gratuitously, for the welfai'e of his 
fellow citizens. Frequently has he appeared before the 
Legislature with petitions praying for laws so stringent as to 
prohibit the liquor trade, and finally he succeeded in cutting 
out some work for his coimtry. 

He is a tanner by trade, and although he has (I may be 
misinformed) retired from business, he has left the hides of 
many rumsellers on the fence. "Wonder if they would not 
make good shoes, since they are water proof ! There is not 
a lawyer in the land who could have drafted a better bill 
than that, which has so effectually excommunicated intemper- 
ance from the glorious State which is the nearest to the 
golden gates of sunrise. The Law declares that intox- 
icating drinks shall not be made and sold, to be used as a 
beverage, in Maine — that an agent shall be appointed in 
each city or town to sell spirits for mechanical and medicinal 
purposes only — that common sellers shall be heavily fined 
and imprisoned for persisting in violating the law — that no 
lawless rum seller shall be allowed to sit as a juror on a 
rum suit — that liquors may be searched foi*, seized and de- 
stroyed — that in case of appeal, bonds must be given that 
the case will be prosecuted, and if the judgment goes against 
the defendant, he must pay double the fine and suffer double 
the imprisonment, &c., &c. Read the law, it is a good one. 
It has not been pared down by abridgment, or patched up 
with amendments. It is the people's law, and not the law 
4 



46 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

of politicians. It is a terror to those who do ill, and a 
praise to those who do well. It is a fire annihilator, and 
works well out doors or in, and the effect is the same 
whether the building be a small one or a large one. Suc- 
cess to the Main Law, which is the Law of Maine. 



GERRIT SMITH. 



On my return fi'om tlie West, I called to see that gener- 
ous philanthropist, eminent orator, and impracticable radical, 
Gerrit Smith. I found him in his office, pen in hand, at his 
writing-desk. When he read my note of introduction, he 
remarked that he was familiar with my name, and supposed 
I was a much older man. lie politely invited me to avail 
myself of his hospitality. I did so, and had an opportunity 
of seeing him at home. 

Mr. Smith lives in a small white house, about two miles 
distant from the village of Peterboro'. It is plainly and 
sparingly furnished. There are no luxurious sofas upon 
which to lounge, no costly carpets upon which to tread, no 
costly mirrors at which to gaze. Everything about his resi- 
dence partakes of the useful rather than the ornamental. I 
found him an accessible, sociable, j)leasant man, thoroughly 
familiar with the history of the reformers and the reforma- 
tory movements of the present day. 

It is well known that this distinguished man stands at the 
head of the most radical class of reformers. Indeed he stands 
out so far in front of his age that slow-moving conservatives 
cannot appreciate the man nor his motives. lie denounces 



48 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

rum-patronising and pro-slavery churches ; consequently all 
the anathema maranathas of unsympathizing and iinsancti- 
fied professors of religion are hurled at his head, and he is 
condemned as an infidel, whereas he evidently is an humble 
and devoted follower of Christ. " By their fruits ye shall 
know them." He asks a blessing at his table. Night and 
morning he lays the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart 
on the altar of family devotion. Every day he carefully 
studies the Scriptures ; and manifests his love to God whom 
he has not seen, by his love toward his brother-man whom 
he has seen. 

Few men have done more than Mr. Smith to assist the 
poor, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, reform the 
drunkard and liberate the bondman. The hotels owned by 
him in diiferent towns and cities in this country, are invari- 
ably rented for half the sum liquor-landlords would pay for 
the same premises. In this way, he has cheerfully sacrificed 
thousands of dollars to promote the temperance cause. I 
have not mentioned his munificent donations and eloquent 
lectures directed to the same object. This model man gave 
three thousand farms to the same number of black persons, 
and now he offers a thousand farms and ten thousand dollars 
to a thousand white persons in the State of New York. 
Mr. Smith's father was in partnership with John Jacob 
Astor, at one period of his life. When he died, he be- 
queathed to the subject of this sketch three quarters of a 
million acres of land. 

In point of intellect, Mr. Smitli ranks with such men as 
Clay and Benton. His mind is comprehensive and well 
cultivated. His temperament volcanic, but usually control- 
led by an acute judgment. As an orator he has but few 
superiors. His manner is deliberate and dignified — his 
matter choice and classical — his personal appearance noble 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 49 

and attractive. He is about six feet tall, and of perfect 
proi^ortions ; forehead high and broad ; eyes large, dark, and 
expressive ; hair brown, and cropped close to his head. At 
the time I saw him he wore a suit of bottle-green, and his 
broad shirt-color lay down like a large snow-flake over a 
black neckerchief. He never decorates his person with the 
tinselry and jewelry of fashion. He eats plain food, sleeps 
on a hard bed, bathes every day, drinks nothing but cold 
water, walks from four to ten miles a day, Avrites from fifty 
to two hundred letters per week, furnishes long and labored 
communications for the press, speaks frequently at public 
meetings. 

It is not often we find a man with such immense wealth 
at his command, sympathizing as he does with his less fortu- 
nate fellow men. He believes that man is as much entitled 
to the earth as he is to air and water, and desires to see 
every man own a house and lot ; is opposed to tariffs, 
and advocates with great zeal and eloquence the doctrine 
of free trade ; believes there is " a good time coming " 
when the clarion of war shall cease, and the olive-trees shall 
grow above mouldering bones on battle-fields ; when degrad- 
ing poverty shall hide its diminished head, and smiling com- 
petence shall find all men sitting under their own vines and 
fig-trees, none daring to molest or make them afraid ; when 
slavery shall no longer bind on heavy burdens ; when intem- 
perance shall be among the things that were, and abstinence 
principles shall universally prevail. With such views, it 
may not be expected that he always travels on a smooth 
road and sleeps on a bed of roses. He stirs up the old 
hornet-nests of hunkerism and awakens the slumbering doe:- 
kennels of conservatism, so that he frequently hears the 
buzzing of insects and the baying of hounds. 

Unimprovable, incorrigible conservatives, who cling to 
4* 



50 CKATON SKETCHES. 

grey old customs and straight roads, who hate an uneven 
pathway although it may be the safest and the nearest, re- 
mind one of the rats of Norway, that travel in millions from 
the hills toward the the ocean.* They turn neither to the 
right nor the left, but gnaw their way through barns and 
corn-fields, swimming or sailing over rivers, climbing walls 
and mountains, sweeping through crowded thoroughfares, 
tumbling from the roofs of houses. On, on, rolls the wave 
of rats, leaving behind nothing but dead carcases and a foul 
atmosphere. Man is a progi-essive animal, and the more 
conservative he is, the nearer he approximates to the unin- 
tellectual brute, and the further he recedes from established 
laws. God made man upi'ight, and furnished him with a 
capital of bones and brains with which to commence life. 
Experience, observation and reflection taught him that 
Winter would freeze him. Summer scorch him, fire burn him, 
water drown him, the wild beast devour him, and the ava- 
lanche crush him. He robed himself in garments to protect 
him from the cold of the North and the heat of the South. 
He built a house for his comfort and protection. He domes- 
ticated the dog, the cow and the horse, for his own accommo- 
dation. He dried venison and fish, sowed seed and reaped 
harvests, and continued his progressive movements until the 
rude hut became a stately palace, the bark canoe a mighty 
ship with sails and masts, the clumsy cart a city on wheels 
drawn by steam-steeds over iron roads. Steam is our horse, 
lightning our herald, water our servant, and the sun our 
portrait-painter. 

Reform tunnels our mountains, levels the hills, lifts up the 
valleys, and flings its floating bridges of steel and steam imd 
flame and smoke over the oceans. Our railroads are iron 

» Carlyle. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 51 

bands binding us in the bonds of universal brotherhood. 
Our electric wires are so many nerves of sensation, reaching 
from the body politic to the brains of society. 

Mr. Smith is one of the few who keeps pace with the 
march of improvement, and he heartily employs his purse, 
pen and tongue in behalf of free trade, free soil, free types, 
free lips, and free men. He believes the Constitution is an 
" anti-slavery document ; " so do the free-soil abolitionists, yet 
is not a " free-soiler." He believes the church is pro-slavery, 
and on that question agrees with the Garrisonians, but he does 
not belong to that party. He is at the head of the " Liberty 
party," and his creed embraces every degree of reform, from 
the use of cold water as a beverage and in the bath, to the 
emancipation of three millions of men. 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 

The first time the writer saw Abbott Lawrence, the 
great cotton-lord, was in Brattle Square church. He was 
standing in the broad aisle, conversing with a negro, who is 
a brother member of the same religious society to which the 
subject of this sketch belongs. While the beauty and fash- 
ion, the wealth and wisdom, the virtue and piety of that 
church Avere pressing homewards, the distinguished man who 
is now at the Court of St. James, was holding a brief te(e-a- 
iete with his black brother, and I had a fine opportunity to 
take his portrait. 

Mr. Lawrence is a tall, portly, noble and dignified-looking 
man, about sixty years of age. His head is bald, and shines 
as tliougli it came fresh from the hands of a skilful var- 
nisher and polisher ; and it is quite evident that the shining 
qualities of the head are not conlincd to the exterior of the 
skull, but seem rather to result from something brilliant 
within. He has a calm, jdeasant face, indicating, to the 
minutest line, that he is not afraid to see the sheriff or the 
clamorous creditor. He wore, on this occasion, a thin cravat, 
light vest, and a dress coat (I tliink) of olive green. 

I saw him again at a "mass meeting" in Faneuil Hall, 
the very time wlien he said his breeches-pocket contained 
the evidence that Gen. Taylor was a Whig I The old 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 



53 



" Cradle of Liberty " was packed with people. It was no 
easy task for those who came late to gain admittance, but, 
being accustomed to crowds, and determined to see and hear 
the speakers, I pushed my way through to the front gallery, 
where I obtained a seat and a view of the platform. Our 
subject was in the chair, and in more senses than one he 
filled it well. He was surrounded by men well known to 
fame. Some of them were acquainted with him wdien he 
was a poor, awkward boy, employed as a clerk in a store in 
the city of Boston. One of them told the writer that when 
Mr. Lawrence left his native town of Groton, he came to 
the capital of Massachusetts with a pair of buckskin gloves 
on his hands. It was during the Summer season, and some 
of the city gents, laughed at the verdancy of the country 
lad. That he afterwards pulled off his gloves, the " cities 
of spindles" he has erected bear the most unequivocal 
testimony. 

At the proper time he arose and made a speech. It con- 
tained humor, pathos, and logic enough to be interesting. 
He is more of a business than a literary man; a better 
financier than statesman, and would never have been more 
than a moderate statesman if he had not been a first-rate 
financier. He is indebted to his brains for his money, and 
to his money for his honors. He went through the mill first, 
then 2;raduated at the counting-house, and recently journeyed 
to Loudon as minister-plenipotentiary. 

Mr. Lawrence is a magnificent man. He does, everything 
by wholesale and nothing in the retail line. Not satisfied 
wdth the murmuring of a single mill, he must make every 
idle stream turn a crank for him. Look at Lowell and 
Lawrence, the cities erected by his enterprise ! He w^ould 
not be Mayor of Boston, but he would like to be President 
of the United States; — is liberal to the poor, though he 



54 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

will not allow his funds to filter through his own hands to 
the needy. He prefers giving a large sum when he gives 
anything, but it must be distributed by those who are willing 
to come in contact with the sorrowing and distressed. 

Mr. Lawi*ence is a practical business man, of pleasing 
manners and polite address. Although he has devoted a 
large portion of his life to business, he is familiar with the 
modern history of nations, and knows enough respecting the 
etiquette of courts and the usages of diplomacy to fill the 
station he occupies with credit to himself and honor to his 
country. 



WENDELL PHILLIPS. 



Wendell Phillips is the Patrick Henry of New-Eng- 
land. If be has less natural eloquence, less thrilling pathos, 
than the orator of the Revolution, he has more polish and as 
much power of origination. He is a ripe scholar, a lawyer 
of no ordinary calibre, a magazine writer of considerable 
note, and a reformer of the most radical school. He is the 
pet speaker of the East. He has great poAver of perception, 
sincere sympathy for the oppressed, and wonderful command 
over the stores of varied knowledge treasured u\) in his 
retentive memory. He has the "gifts that universities cannot 
bestow," the current coin that cannot be counterfeited, " the 
prophet's vision," the poet's fancy, the light of genius. He 
is at home on the mountain-top, and when he soars skyward 
he is not lost among the clouds ; has all the sagacity of the 
man of business united with the enthusiasm of the Utopian, 
and seems to be equally related to Maia the eloquent, and 
Jupiter the thunderer. He admires the etei-nal, the infinite, 
the heaven-like, the God-approximating in the nature of 
man, whatever may be the color of the envelope that con- 
tains these attributes. 

Mi\ Phillips' speeches have in them the breath of life — 
hence they live long to swell the bosom and make the heart 
throb. " He does not go to the lamp of the old schools to 



56 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

light his torch, but dips it into the sun, which accounts for 
its gorgeous effulgence." He is something of a metaphysi- 
cian, but is too much absorbed in the work of revolution- 
izing public sentiment to devote his attention to subtle 
research and profound analysis. He makes but little 
preparation, and always speaks extemporaneously; conse- 
quently some of his addresses are like a beautiful damsel in 
dishabille; then his quotations are ringlets rolled up in 
papers, and the main part of the lecture like a loose gown 
which now and then reveals a neck of pearl and a voluptu- 
ous bust of snowy whiteness and beautiful proportions. He 
is often brilliant, never tedious. Sometimes his scholarship 
is seen conspicuously, but it is never pompously disjdayed. 

It is a rich treat to hear Wendell Phillips speak to a large 
and appreciative audience. Let the reader fancy he is at a 
mass meeting in some forest temple. The sun shines as 
though delighted with the gathering ; the shy bird;5 perch in 
silence on the neighboring trees, as though they were aston- 
ished at the proceedings ; a song makes the welkin ring. 
The chairman announces the name of a favorite speaker. 
A genteel man steps gracefully upon the platform. He is 
neatly, not foppishly, dressed. A pleasant smile illuminates 
his noble face. He leaps, at a single bound, into the middle 
of the subject. He reasons, and his logic is on fire ; he des- 
cribes, and the subject is daguerreotypcd on the retina of 
memory ; he quotes from some classic author, and the ex- 
cerpt is like an apple of gold in a picture of silver ; he tells 
a story, and the impression it gives is indelible ; he makes 
an appeal, and tears flow freely ; he declaims, and the people 
are intensely excited ; he soars, and his lips arc touched 
with a live coal from the altar of inspiration. Mr. I'hillips 
believes in a " higher law," so he appeals to the sense of the 
everlasting in man. " He plays the Titanic game of rocks, 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 57 

and not a game of tennis-balls," and yet he " floods the 
heart with singular and thrilling pleasure." " He is the 
primed mouth-piece of an eloquent discharge, who presents, 
applies the linstock, and fires off; " and the conservatives who 
stand with their fingers in their ears, are startled by the 
report. Is there a mob ? his words are like oil on the 
troubled billows of the chafed sea ; he rebukes the winds of 
strife and the waves of faction, and there is a great calm. 
The serene face of his bosom-friend, the leader of the league, 
is radiant with smiles ; the severe front of a turncoat or a 
tyrant present begins to relax ; the doughface is ashamed of 
himself, and determines that hereafter he will be " a doer 
and not dough ; " the stiff-limbed finds a hinge in his joints, 
and his supple knees bow in homage to the speaker. 

But I must find some fault, or I shall be deemed a 
flatterer. Let me see — what shall I say ? " Oh, he is an 
impracticable radical ; he goes for the dissolution of the 
Union, the dismemberment of the church, the destruction of 
the political parties." In this he is partly right and partly 
wrong. The Christian should do for Christ's sake what 
the worldling does for the sake of humanity, then there will 
be no necessity for such a reproof. The body politic should 
sever the leprous limb of slavery, and then America would 
not limp so as to become a laughing-stock and a by-word to 
the nations of the earth. The political parties at the North 
are leavened with anti-slavery doctrines, and it is hoped they 
vdll soon rise to the level of that benevolence which will 
render such rebukes unnecessary. I declare it is difficult 
for me to find any fault in him. Reader, you may be 
Herod, but I cannot be Pilate, and consent to his crucifixion. 
I must confess that I love the man, although I cannot en- 
dorse all his creed. It is a pity that he limits his usefulness 
5 



58 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

by his fierce warfare against men and measures that are too 
long or too short for his iron bedstead. 

Mr. Phillips is a man of fortune, and one of the distin- 
guished few who contributes to support the enterprise in 
which he feels an interest as much as he expends in sustain- 
ing himself and family. Physically he is a noble specimen 
of°a man. His head is sparingly covered with reddish 
hair, — 

" The golden treasure nature slTOwers doTm 
On tliose foredoomed to wear Fame's golden crown." 

A phrenologist would pronounce his head worth more 
than the South would be willing or able to give for it. He 
has large ideality and sublimity, hence he soars ; large com- 
parison and causality, so he reasons by analogy ; large hope 
and benevolence, and the genial sunshine of good-nature 
irradiates his countenance ; large firmness and adhesiveness, 
and he abides by his friends through evil and through good 
report. His face is pleasant, and indicates exquisite taste, 
pure generosity, and Roman firmness. He is now in the 
full vigor of manhood, and ever ready at a moment's warn- 
ing to battle for what he deems the right. Woe be unto the 
man who enters the arena with him, for he wields a two- 
edged sword of Damascus steel. Many strong men have 
been slain by him ; yea, many mighty men have fallen 
before him. Had he united with either of the great politi- 
cal parties, he would have been chosen as a champion, for 
he is brilliant as Choate, witliout liis bedlamitish idiosyncra- 
sies ; clear as Clay, without his accommodating, compromis- 
ing disposition ; learned as Winthrop, witliout his bookish- 
ne'ss and drawing-room mannerism ; genial as Cass, without 
his dulness ; fiery as Benton, without his unapproachable 
self-sufficiency. He would entertain a promiscuous audience 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 59 

better than either of the above-named men. He is not so 
logical as Webster ; not so luminous as the ever-consistent 
Calhoun ; not so learned as the second Adams ; not so thril- 
ling as Kentucky's favorite ; and yet he is a more instructive 
and a more interesting speaker than either of those distin- 
guished men ever were, even in their palmiest days. 

Wendell Phillips is universally esteemed and beloved. 
Even those who hate his creed, and dread his power, admire 
his disinterested kindness and irresistible eloquence. 



PHILIP S. WHITE. 

Everybody said, " Let us go to the great meeting at 
Tremont Temple, this evening, and hear Pliilip S. White, 
the distinguished champion of the temperance reform." At 
the appointed hour, that magnificent forum was filled with 
the wealth, heauty, talent, and moral worth of Boston. The 
immense building was brilliantly illuminated, as though the 
sun had risen behind the orchestra and concentrated its rays 
within the walls of the Temple. On the platform were some 
of the elite and literati of society, — authors, orators, and 
philanthropists. After the usual preliminaries, at the com- 
mencement of the exercises, skilful fingers touched the 
magic keys of the mammoth organ, and we were pleasantly 
entertained with sweet strains of delightful melody. Some- 
times it seemed as if a choir of soft-voiced maidens was 
enclosed behind those golden columns, singing such rich, 
lute-like airs that angels, on their mission of mercy, might 
have mistaken that place for the gate of heaven. Tlicn the 
heavy bass would roll like a wave of thunder through the 
large hall, startling the charmed hearers to a sense of the 
fact that they were still under the clouds. 

As the music subsided, a tall, portly man, on the mellow 
side of fifty, arose to address the audience. " Is that the 
man who stood at the head of the Order of the Sons of 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 61 

Temperance ? " is the general inquiry. " It is," was the 
response. The " observed of all observers," on this occasion, 
is a person of good mould, somewhat bald, but makes up 
that deficiency by a luxurious growth of whiskers, which 
become his face as feathers do an eagle. He has a large, 
aquiline, Bardolphian nose, dark eyes, and a wide mouth, 
indicative of eloquence and good nature. He commences in 
a conversational pitch of voice ; face dull and passionless as 
marble ; has spoken ten minutes without saying any thing, 
and the sanguine expectations of the people are sadly disap- 
pointed. The hearers bow their heads like bulrushes, and 
some would leave the meeting but that they hope for better 
things. He is not quite so prosy now as he was fifteen 
minutes ago. His voice is deeper and clearer, his utterance 
more rapid and distinct, and his face shines as though it had 
been freshly oiled. There is a resurrection now among the 
bowed heads ; he has just made a thrilling appeal, which 
moved the audience like a shock from an electric battery. 
Now he relates a tale of pity, which is drawing tears from 
eyes " unused to weep." Now he surprises his attentive 
hearers with an unanticipated stroke of humor, which makes 
them laugh vmtil they shake the tear-drops from their 
cheeks. All are glad they came now, for the orator is in 
his happiest mood, his blood is up, and his tongue as free as 
the pen of a ready writer. He throws light on the question 
by the corruscations of his attic wit ; drives home a truth 
by solid argument, and clinches it by a quotation from 
Scripture ; convulses the auditory by using a ludicrous com- 
parison ; convinces them by presenting sober-faced statistics ; 
entertains them by I'elating an appropriate anecdote, and 
fires their indignation against the traffic, while the rum- 
dealers present shake in their shoes. He warns the drinkers 
with a voice which arouses them like a clap of thunder 
5* 



62 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

through a speaking-trumpet. In a word, his sparkling 
satire, keen wit, eloquent declamation, happy comparisons, 
classical allusions, rih-cracking fun, and heart-melting pathos, 
render him one of the most efficient public speakers in 
America. 

Mr. White can labor a syllogism, or tell a story, with the 
same ease that Talleyrand could turn a coffee-mill or a king- 
dom. He goes for moral, legal, bible, pocket, and ballot-box 
suasion. His inimitable histrionic powers enable him to tell 
a story admirably. He has almost omnipotent power in 
swaying the minds and hearts of his hearers, Avhen he is 
fairly engaged and has a sea of crystal faces before him. 
He speaks without notes, and is so careless, withal, that he 
preserves no minutes of his speeches ; consequently, when 
he responds to a second invitation to visit a place, he is apt 
to repeat the same stories, although he has an inexhaustible 
supply of unused material always on hand. He has studied 
human nature so thoroughly he knows liow to reach the 
hearts of the masses. If the people will but listen to his 
lectures, they will open their mouths so earnestly he could 
almost reach their hearts by the way of the oesophagus. Mr. 
White is personally known on the green mountains of Ver- 
mont, on the granite hills of New Hampshire, in the pleasant 
valley of the Connecticut, on the banks of the Mississippi ; 
has hosts of friends at the sunny South, at the stormy North, 
and the flir-off West. Years ago he made the tour of 
Europe. At that time he was fond of luxurious living and 
unweaned from the wine-cup ; he was a good judge of 
Otard and Madeira, and can speak from personal experience 
on matters pertaining to fashionable drinking. 

Mr. Wliite is a good specimen of a Kentucky gentle- 
man — gallant, generous and urbane. Indeed, he can 
accommodate himself to any company, and would be a wel- 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 63 

come guest at the table of a duke, or feel perfectly at home 
in the cottage of a peasant. He must have been a studious 
man in his day, but he has bravely overcome that habit 
now ; for he would rather hold a man by the button all 
day, entertaining him by telling stoi'ies, than to read a page 
or write a "stick-full" of matter for a newspaper. When he 
has a report to make, he will throw the burden, if he can 
possibly do so, on shoulders not so able to bear it as his own, 
and he will put off the unwelcome task to the last hour, then 
dash off an impromptu report, and beauty will break out of 
statistics and facts, like flowers on the rod of Aaron. Some- 
times he visits Subordinate Divisions of his favorite 
Order, as well as Sections of the juvenile Cadets, to fire 
the zeal, strengthen the faitli, and encourage the hopes 
of the " Sons " and their sons. I once heard him address 
one of the latter societies on the evils arising from the use 
of tobacco, but, unfortunately, he had that evening quite a 
gathering in his own mouth, which somewhat choked his 
utterance. The not altogether unusual swelling somewhat 
disappeared before the meeting adjourned, and it is hoped 
that by this time he has got entirely rid of the swelling. 

Mr. White is good company, a good story-teller, and a 
terror to all hypochondriacism and dyspepsia. Blessed are 
they who hear his voice and see his face, for they shall 
laugh and grow fat. I am no stickler for empty dignity, 
but remain under the impression that Mr. W. is not so dig- 
nified at the fireside as he is in the forum. There are vul- 
gar persons who call him the Hon. Philip S. White when 
they speak of his public efforts, and yet abbreviate the title 
to Phil, in their personal intercourse with him. He is no 
favorite with those who will not "give up a 'jiint' of doc- 
ti'ine nor a pint of rum," for as the bottle-imp of Asmodeus 
unroofed the houses of Madrid, for the gratification of Le 



64 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

Sage's servant, so he uncovers the hearts of those whose 
bigotry or appetite or interest oppose the temperance refor- 
mation. Mr. White is by profession a lawyer, and, if I am 
correctly informed, was at one period of his life Attorney 
General of one of the "Western Territories. lie is proud of 
his lineage, and is not backward in speaking about his for- 
mer position in society, which is in bad taste, since he is 
now in a loftier position than any Baronet of England. 

The fraternity, I think, manifested forecast worthy of 
their trust when they selected him to be their leader, for 
his abundant self-sacrificing and faithful labors in this coun- 
try and in the neighboring Provinces, have accomj)lished 
incalculable good to the cause in general, and won unfading 
laurels for him in particular. He is the author of a work 
entitled the " War of Four Thousand Years," and a tract 
entitled " Vindication of the Order." It is a pity that he 
did not give a more Christian name to the first, and a matter 
of regret that he went into partnership Avith others in writ- 
ing either. His admirers would like to see a book from his 
own pen and know that he wrote it. His idea of a national 
newspaper organ, to be managed by some master-mind of 
the National Division, does not meet with general approval, 
because it would be unwise to jjut such power into the hands 
of one man ; because it would narrow the circulation of the 
local papers to the starving point ; because one sheet would 
not suit every meridian ; because the temperance press now 
in operation is not properly sustained ; because there is a 
inLicli editorial tact and talent connected with the local 
press as can be found in tlie National Division ; because 
monopolies are monsters not favorable to the growth of 
Love, Purity or Fidelity, the characteristics of our Order. 



JOHN VAN BUREN. 



Prince John is the Duke of York, the distinguished son 
of King Martin the First ; — is the Jupiter Tonans of liis 
party, tlie Jove of jolly fellows, a royal roystering republi- 
can, a genius and a good fellow, admired and adored by the 
masses. He can accommodate himself to the society of the 
voters in the " Sixth Ward," or the company of peers with 
laced gauntlets, knights in golden mantles, or presidents at 
the "White House," without losing his identity. He is 
John Van Buren, and nobody else, whether he be sitting 
cheek-by-jowl with Tom, Dick and Harry at the corner 
grocery, or debating with the Cokes and Littletons of the 
law in chancery, or hugging and kissing Queen Victoria in 
her palace. When the obese, wheezing, antediluvian Hun- 
kers met him in the arena of combat, he attacked them vig- 
orously and repulsed them with great {s)laug}der. 

This apostle of the " young democracy " bids fair to 
occupy an important niche in the Pantheon of the present 
time. He has a philosophical and penetrating mind, which 
has had the advantages and disadvantages of every degree 
of cultivation — in the palace of the President and in the pot- 
house of the demagogue. He knows there are zealots, bigots, 
and earnest Christians in our churches, true patriots and 
truckling sycophants in our political parties, devoted philan- 



66 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 



thropists and hollow-hearted pretenders in our benevolent 
associations, and he governs himself accordingly. He knows 
the man-about-town, and permits him to be on sociable 
terms, for that comports with his idea of republicanism. 
He allows the hackman, the bar-tender, the wood-sawyer 
and the butcher-boy to call him Jack, and slap him on the 
shoulder, for the same reason the sportsman plays with his 
dogs at the commencement of the chase. 

John Van Buren is fond of the chase, and he will hunt 
the rats to the barn, and then set the buildings on fire, for 
he is truly a " barnburner." Sometimes he has to contend 
with eloquent reasoners and men of imperious talent. On 
such occasions he displays great versatility of mind, search- 
ing analysis, nice taste, sound judgment, vivid fancy, polished 
scorn and convincing logic. He can be comic, dramatic, 
energetic, picturesque, sedate, seductive, inductive, and de- 
ductive. He punished Croswell (a political editor) over the 
remains of Silas "Wright, as Marc Antony did Brutus over 
the dead body of Ca?sar ; and when the man of " mighty 
pens " attempted to retreat, he got his " foot in the grating." 

At a mass meeting when Prince John was the mouth- 
piece of his party, one of the " unterrified " proposed three 
cheers for Cass. " Oh, do n't," said the waggish orator, with 
a look of mock gravity; "it will be like whistling at a 
funeral." His speeches are often enlivened with caustic wit 
and unmistakable homethrusts. Sometimes he leads his 
hearers through a dead level of political history, without 
either song or story to change the dull monotony and cheer 
the impatient hearer. He writes clearly and forcibly, re- 
gardless of finish or ornament ; has as much shrewdness, 
adroitness, and world-wisdom as his father, but less secret- 
iveness, less suavity and less dignity ; can excel his father 
at stump speaking, but cannot equal him in writing a mes- 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 67 

sage. John annihilates his enemies by the simoon of his 
sarcasm ; his father catches them in the trap of stratagem, 
and compliments them into bosom friendship. Indeed, he is 
an unconverted Paul, pursuing (not persecuting) hunkers 
(not Christians) to strange cities, while his father is Abso- 
lom, (without the locks,) winning the hearts of the people. 

Prince John is a favorite among the ladies. It is cur- 
rently reported that when Queen Victoria presented her 
lily-white hand for him to kiss, according to court etiquette, 
he, in the face of such usages, with republican gallantry 
folded his arms around her neck and gave her a hearty 
smack upon her cheek. It is also said that during his wid- 
ower-hood he paid some attention to a lady of fortune in 
Western New York, and once upon a time, when they were 
riding on horseback, he ventured to pop the question. The 
lady changed the subject by asking him to overtake her, at 
the same time giving the horse a hint which caused him to 
bound forward with the speed of the wind. John was 
astride a livery stable hack, and was soon distanced, and not 
a little mortified at seeing the lady's glove upon the road ! 
If it be true that this distinguished " son of York " has 
refrained from the use of wine, there is a brilliant future 
before him. He is so frank, so generous, and so gifted, he 
is the man the people will delight to honor ; but he must not, 
like Alcibiades, deface the images of the gods and expect to 
be pardoned on the score of eccentricity. 

Mr. Van Buren is one of the first men in the " Empire 
State." He sustains the same relationship to the Demo- 
cratic party that Seward holds to the Whig party. In pex-- 
sonal appearance, he is a tall, spare man, with a " locofoco- 
ish" look, somewhat round-shouldered, and stoops a little 
when he walks, as though he had to bear upon his back the 
responsibility of the party he lately rejuvinated. His head 



68 CKAYON SKETCHES. 

is prematurely bald, and the scanty supply of hair that is 
left is soft, thin, and of a foxy color, and has that pliosphor- 
escent appearance Avhich indicates a readiness to blaze the 
moment there is any friction of brain — hence his flashes of 
wit when he is rubbed. He is about forty years of age, has 
an ample forehead, expressive eyes, and a countenance 
denoting a high order of intellect. 

He is an eminent laAvyer, a great statesman, a progress 
politician. There is a sort of do n't-care-a-copper-ativeness 
about him, a reckless spirit of dare-anything-ism, which is 
repulsive to the amiable, though delightful to the disciples 
of rowdyism. In his happiest moods, when speaking from 
the tribune, he is chaste, classical, philosophical, and the 
illuminati become his enthusiastic admirers. He only needs 
the graceful polish, the serene dignity of his father, added 
to his other best attributes, to render him one of the most 
useful, honorable and distinguished men of the nineteenth 
century. 

That he is destined, if his life is spared, to hold an 
important relation to the politics of this country, is the sin- 
cere belief of Crayon. 



WILLIAM A. WHITE. 



So lon"^ as the writer of these sketches does not belono; 
to the Mutual Admiration Society, and since it lias become 
fashionable for magazine and newspaper publishers to 
furnish their readers with their own portraits, I can see no 
earthly nor heavenly reason, why a contributor to the 
columns of the New-Englander may not give to the public 
a likeness of one of its editors. The readers of this paper 
have a right to see a pen-and-ink daguerreotype of one who 
talks to them with tj'pes so frequently, so plainly, and so 
eloquently. 

William A. White is thirty-three years of age, of 
medium stature and good mould. His temperament is 
sanguine-nervous, and his development of brain indicates 
the propelling power he brings to bear upon the reforma- 
tory movements to which he is devoted. He has brown 
hair, which is parted in the middle, leaving a furrow from 
benevolence to approbativeness. His eyes are blue, com- 
plexion fair, face round, fat and plump, indicative of good 
digestion. The ladies say he would be decidedly handsome, 
were it not that he disfigures himself by allowing such an 
overgrowth of moustache, imperial and goatee. I cannot 
account for his antipathy to razors, for he loves everything 
else that is sharp, and dislikes whatever is Jlat, — which, by- 
6 



70 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

the-way, may be the reason he cut some of the grandees of 
his favorite Order the other day. If he makes them smart, 
he Avill do more for them than their parents or their school- 
masters liave done. 

Although Mr. White is a young man, he has been an un- 
tiring and unyielding soldier in the ranks of reform, for many 
years. He is a spontaneous speaker, who can rise in the 
presence of a regiment of critics, and utter his sentiments 
unembarrassed, though all the reporters of the press were 
driving their quills before him. If the Southern " Sons " 
had not beforehand fitted that gag for the free mouths of the 
North, they would have found in him a formidable opi)onent 
to the obnoxious measure wliich meets with such unqualified 
and universal disapprobation wherever humanity is regarded. 
The magnanimous chivalry of the mighty South, which 
appears so captivating in history, and so splendid in 
romance, disappeared on this T)ccasion and looked like 
Falstaff — great, swaggering and afraid of notliing but dan- 
ger. There was not a man from tlie slave side of Mason 
and Dixon's line, who could have stood before our subject in 
debate. It is strange that men who have Avhipped so many 
blacks were afraid to face one White. 

As I have intimated, tlie senior editor of the Neic- 
Englander is a fluent and forcible speaker. He speaks 
better than he writes. He is an enthusiast in reform, and 
manifests but little patience with Avooden-head conservatives, 
who will not comprehend what tlioy cannot count with their 
fingers, nor measure anything that is longer than a yard- 
stick. With such men, and witli the opjircssors of our race, 
whether they use rum or the raw-hide, liquor or the lash, the 
cat or the can, he has no fellowshij). Wlien lie writes about 
them, his pen foams at the nib ; when he speaks about them, 



CEAYON SKETCHES. 71 

his speeches " remind us of some rivers that are sweet in 
their source, but bitter at the mouth." 

Mr. White lacks concentrativeness. He is apt to fly from 
one subject to another. He needs a balance-wheel. What 
Kleber said of Napoleon may be said of him : — " He had 
two faults, that of advancing without considering how he 
should retreat, and of seizing without considering how he 
should retain." When convinced that he is right, he has a 
sort of dare-demon energy, and, like Luther, would go to 
the Diet of Worms to-day Avere he sure the worms would 
diet on him to-morrow. He is impulsive, but his heart is so 
near his head that his intuition is often a better guide than 
the matured judgment of some men of greater pretensions. 
A flash of lightning is sometimes of more service in the 
dark, than the slow moon which may not rise from behind 
the cloud in time to avert the danger. 

Mr. White has had the advantages of a classical educa- 
tion, and his distinguished brother-in-law, James Russell 
Lowell, the great poet, was one of liis classmates in college. 
He studied law but practiced the gospel, and, of course, re- 
linquished that profession. Although connected, like Wen- 
dell Phillips and Edmund Quincy, with some of the first 
families in New England, he cheerfully and modestly iden- 
tifies himself with the progress parties, whom the Pharisees 
and Sadducees of this generation do not delight to honor. 
Doubtless he is fond of fame, but he will not sacrifice his 
sentiments to obtain it ; like Cato, he would rather have 
postei'ity inquire why no statues were erected to him than 
why they were. 



EDWIN H. CHAPIN. 

"►♦ft®*"" 

Edwin II. Chapix Is one of the ablest ami most eloquent 
expounders and defenders of the doctrine of unlimited sal- 
vation. He has no faith in the old black fellow who keeps 
the fire-office. He imagines that poets and divines give him 
more credit for sagacity and potency than he deserves, and 
that if he ever was a genius he is now in his dotage, and 
furthermore, that he has not goodness enough to be entitled 
to our respect, nor influence sufficient over our future 
destiny to alarm our fears. To him a devil by any other 
name is just as dreadful, and the Satan he endeavors to sub- 
due he calls Evil, Sin, Crime, Vice, Error. He thinks the 
distillery, wliere the worm dieth not and the fires are un- 
quenched, is a hell on earth which causes weeping, wailing 
and gnashing of teeth. 

Mr. Cha{)in is an indei")endent, straiglit-forward man, who 
has a will and a way of his own, and he is willing to allow 
others the same freedonx lie assumes himself. He does not 
expect his church to cough when he takes cold, nor to 
acquiesce in silent submission to every proposition that he 
makes. He is not a theological tyrant, threatening ven- 
geance, and outer-darkness, and eternal fire, to all the mem- 
bers of his flock Avho will not uncomplainingly and unhesi- 
tatingly yield to his spiritual snpervisorship. His lessons 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 73 

and lectures may sometimes smell of the lamp, but they 
never smell of brimstone. His education, his temperament, 
his organization of brain, his natural benevolence, and the 
society in which he has lived, moved, and had his being, 
have contributed to make him a preacher of the gospel. He 
advocates with heroic courage and untiring zeal the doctrines 
of his faith, but is universally respected by all denomina- 
tions of professing Christians. 

Mr. Chapin is happily constituted. The animal and the 
angel of his nature are so nicely balanced, and his poetical 
temperament is so admirably controlled by his practical 
knowledge, that his intellectual efforts are invai'iably stamped 
with the mint-mai'k of true currency. There is harmoni- 
ous blending of the poetical and the practical, a pleasant 
union of the material with the spiritual, an arm-in-arm 
connection of the ornamental and useful, a body and soul 
joined together in his discourses. He avoids two exti'emes, 
and is not so material as to be clodish, of the earth earthy, 
nor so aerial as to be vapory or of the clouds cloudy. There 
is something tangible, solid, nutritious and enduring, in his 
sermons. He is not profound in the learning of the schools. 
Many of his inferiors could master him on doctrinal ques- 
tions. The outbursting and overwhelming effusions of his 
natural eloquence, the striking originality of his conceptions, 
the irresistible power of his captivating voice, the vivid and 
copious display of illustration, thrill and charm the appre- 
ciative hearer. He presents his arguments and appeals with 
an articulation as distinct and understandable as his gesticu- 
lation is awkward. He is sometimes abrupt, rapid and 
vehement, but never "tears a passion to tatters." " His tena- 
cious memory enables him to quote with great promptitude, 
and he has that delicate, sensitive taste which enables him 
6* ' 



74 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

to select, with unerring precision, whatever is truly sublime 
and beautiful." 

Mr. Chapin declaims splendidly, in spite of his hands, 
which are always in his Avay. The stiflP and technical 
restraints of style, which disfigure the pulpit efforts of some 
divines, never appear in his sermons, but seem rather to 
pinion his elbows and cramp his fingers. He has a fervid 
imagination, great facility of expression, is scrupulously 
correct in his pronunciation ; never indulges in hypocritical 
cant. There is no theatrical uplifting of the hands and 
uprolling of the eyes, so frequently witnessed in the hysteric 
raptures of mahogany orators. He seems to have a 
thorough knowledge of his subject, and commands your 
admiration by the kingly majesty and sublime beauty of his 
thought. Now he flings a page of meaning into a single 
aphorism, — now he electrifies his spell-bound hearers with a 
spontaneous burst of eloquence, — now he dissolves their 
eyes to tears by a wizard stroke of pathos, — now he controls 
their hearts with the sovereign power of a monarch who rules 
the mind-realm. " He infuses his soul into his voice, and 
both into the nerves and heart of the hearer." 

In person, he is stout, fleshy and well-proportioned. He 
has a full, florid face, which indicates good health and happy 
contentment ; countenance mild, benignant and thoughtful, 
with an expresion of integrity, denoting his inability to per- 
form a mean action ; is near-sighted, and this defect is no 
small disadvantage to him when lie reads, and may account 
for his ungraceful action in tlie pulpit, since it comj^els him 
to face his manuscript so closely he almost eats his own Avords 
and salutes his own rich figures and glowing sentiments, and 
fulfils literally the scripture maxim, " He shall kiss his own 
lips who giveth a correct answer." As I have just intimated, 
he usually reads his discourses, although he is an easy extem- 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 75 

poraneous speaker ; but he is apt to become so intensely ex- 
cited he rarely trusts to his imjoulses. He commands a very 
ready pen, and is the author of two or three small volumes, 
which are widely circulated. His hair is dark brown. He 
wears glasses, so I cannot tell the color of his eyes ; has 
a broad, high forehead, indicating the intellectual strength of 
its owner ; is about forty-five years of age, and has la- 
bored with honor and success for many years, in Richmond, 
Va., Charlestown, Mass., as well as Boston, but is now 
preaching in the city of New York, where he is very popu- 
lar and useful. 

I must be pardoned the mention of one fault. He is care- 
less, sometimes slovenly, in his dress, which is not owing to 
a lack of taste, but to the fact that his studies absorb his 
time and attention. Since he has possessed a " better-half," 
there has been less manifestation of this disagreeable trait. 



CHARLES C. BURLEIGH. 

Charles C. Burleigh, the eccentric and eloquent abo- 
litionist, is brother to William H. and George Burleigh, 
the celebrated poets. He is an out and out "come-outer " — 
a non-compromising radical — a splendid scholar — an off- 
hand orator. He is not so genial as Garrison — but has 
more force — not so bitter as Pillsbury, but his severity has 
a keener edge and cuts deeper — less eloquent than Phillips 
but more logical than he — not so blunt as Foster, but like 
him, he is a plain-dealer. His best thoughts are struck out 
at a heat, and come to the heai't winged Avith words of fire. 
There is thunder and lightning in his logic — and the con- 
cussion, as well as the conclusion, are irresistible. His argu- 
ments are not betinsellcd with gauze and silver spangles ; 
it is pure gold that glitters in his speeches. You look in 
vain for the double refined essence of nonsense and affecta- 
tion with which literary dandies perfume their productions. 
There is a smell of gunpowder in the atmospliere, and a 
mighty fluttering of game, when he levels his gun at a mul- 
titude. His arguments are forcible — his appeals pathetic 
— his language classical. "When he follows an opponent in 
debate, he begins at the beginning, i)ursues his meander- 



€RAYON SKETCHES. 77 

ings, and sweeps away his sophistry as gossamer is swept 
by the wind. He may be seen selling books at the door of 
the building where the convention is held, one minute, and 
the next minute he may be seen on the platform, addressing 
an audience — unmoved by the cat-calls in the gallery, or 
the scribbling of the reporters at his elbow. He speaks right 
on, as though, like the prophet Ezekiel, he had swallowed 
the parchment roll. There is no flaw in his unpi-emeditated 
addresses — you cannot discover any welding marks. I do 
not set him up " too steep," when I venture the assei'tion 
that his addresses found in the abolition papers, will compare 
favorably with the best speeches made in the Senate Cham- 
ber at Washington. Notwithstanding his superior talents 
and his surpassing power of language, he is a wild man, who 
ought to be caught and shaved, for his beard stands, or rather 
hangs, in the way of his usefulness. Unlike Samson, his 
weakness is in his hair, and he could better slay the Philis- 
tines and shake the pillars of the temple, if he would permit 
some one to crop otF liis locks. The first time the writer saw 
him, he looked like a madman just out of Bedlam — but 
he spoke like an Apostle Avhose lips had been touched 
with a live coal from the altar of Inspiration. I have seen 
him frequently since that time, and think that he looks bet- 
ter than he formerly did — as for his speaking, his last effort 
is always the best. 

Mr. Burleigh is a tall, thin man, with light eyes that glow 
and sparkle when he speaks. He wears a golden beard, 
long enough to please the taste of the most fastidious Naza- 
rite ; permits his hair on his head to grow long, parts it in 
the middle, and it rolls in auburn ringlets over his narrow 
shoulders ; dresses plainly, and gives abundant proof that 
dame Fashion seldom or never replenishes his wardrobe. 
Is somewhat inclined to Quakerism — although his creed 



73 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

does not appear in the brim of liis beaver or the cut of his 
coat. His character is irreproachable. He has labored 
untiringly for the welfare of humanity since he and Theo- 
dore Weill, and a band of kindred spii-its, broke loose from 
Lane Seminary. 



AVILLIAM H. SEWARD. 



Senator Seward is the Daniel O'Connell of America ; 
not in stature, for the former is petit — the latter was pro- 
digious ; not in wit, for the Yankee seldom perpetrates even 
a pun, while the Irishman was a « book in breeches," and 
every page gleaming with wit ; not in eloquence, for Seward 
requires preparation and speaks without much unction. 
O'Connell spoke spontaneously, and every word was a throb ; 
not in faith, for the defender of the « higher law " is almost 
a Protestant, Avhile the Great Agitator, as all know, was 
ahogether a Catholic. Yet there is a resemblance, notwith- 
standing their dissimilarities. Seward stands at the tip top of 
his profession as a lawyer, and so did O'Connell. Seward 
made a sensation in the American Senate ; O'Connell did the 
same in the House of Commons. Seward identifies him- 
self with the party of Freedom. O'Connell hated slavery, 
and "oppression made that wise man mad." Seward is 
charged with demagogueism. O'Connell made himself all 
things to some men that he might gain some. Seward has 
won the sympathies of the masses and is the pet of the lib- 
erty-loving people of the North. O'Connell was the idol of 
Ireland, and his memory will ever live in the hearts of his 
countrymen. Seward is dreaded as much by the Old Hunk- 
ers of this country, as O'Connell was feared by the tyrant 



80 CRAY ox SKETCHES. 

Tories of Great Britain. Seward split the Whig party ; so 
did O'Connell. Seward is a practical temperance man ; 
O'Connell was a pledged tee-totaller. ScAvard would like to 
be President of the United States ; O'Connell desired to be 
King of Ireland. Seward is a great man among great men. 
He is not so volcanic as Benton, — not so logical as Webster, 
— not so eloquent as Clay, — not so brittle as Foote, — not so 
jovial as Hale ; but he can write a better letter than any of 
them. A little from his pen will go a great distance and 
keep a long time. His classic style, his earnest air, his 
truthful manner, his uncommon sense, his perfect self-con- 
trol, his thorough knowledge of the leading questions of the 
day, compel the attention and admiration of the hearer. He 
is never timid, never tame, never squeamish, never vulgar, 
never insulting. He is independent without egotism, mod- 
est without subserviency, dignified without pomposity, and 
sociable without affectation. 

We need look back but a few months to find much to ad- 
mire in the character of Seward. See him rise in the Sen- 
ate Chamber, and hear him defend the rights of humanity in 
an atmosphere of opposing influences. There sits the impe- 
rious Clay, with flushed face and flashing eyes — and the 
Great p::xpounder, with pouting lip and brow of thunder; and 
fiery Foote, phosphorescent with excitement ; and philosophi- 
cal Cass, as placid as though the Union was not in danger. He 
(Seward) drops a word in defence of the higher law, and 
forthwith there is " ground and lofty tumbling." The en- 
raged Senators appear to think that regard for the Command- 
ments is an insult to the Constitution — that reverence for 
the Deity is " renegadism " from duty. So they examine the 
elements of nature, analyze the facts in history, and pervert 
the truths of the Bible, to prove that wc ought to obey men 
rather that to obey God. Had Seward been an ordinary 



CBAYON SKETCHES. 81 

man, he would have been swamped amid the storm ; but he 
remained firm as a rock in the midst of that stormy sea, 
and gave proof, that, although minimum in person, he was 
maximum in power. Their impotent threats could no more 
shake his resolufion, than a pinch of snuff could make him 
sneeze, (excuse the homely illustration,) for the former went 
in at his ears almost as frequently as the latter does into his 
nostrils. 

Governor Seward, as he is called, is a little past the prime 
of life, somewhat under the common stature, has a very large 
head, with a few grey hairs playing hide and seek amid the 
mass of light brown ; he has blue eyes, a small forehead, a 
long nose, and a patrician mouth. He is well to do in the 
world, happy in his domestic relations, enjoys a glorious rep- 
utation, and liis star is still in the ascendant. 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 

— ►►*®**>- 

America is the greatest continent, and embraces within its 
limits the grandest mountains, the broadest hakes, the longest 
rivers, the largest prairies, and with all these, the mightiest 
intellect. Its mountains stand up like pillars supporting the 
azure arch in the temple of nature ; its lakes are inland 
seas ; its rivers could swallow the waters of Europe without 
overflowing their banks ; and its mind is correlative with the 
magnificence of its scenery. There is but one Niagara, and 
that is in America ; there is but one Webster, and he is in 
America. The cataract flows now, as it did when God first 
smote the rock in this Western wilderness, and He has woven 
a rainbow about its silver forehead, and crowned it with a 
fountain of diamonds. It shouts the same song of liberty it 
did when the world was in its infancy. It is free and mighty, 
and cannot be hushed into silence, nor flattered into subser- 
viency. So with Webster, when he lifts up his voice for 
freedom, it is like " deep calling unto deep ; " and the light 
of Heaven illuminates his magnetic eyes and beams on his 
mighty forehead. 

Geologists have discovered the colossal bones of the 
Mastodon, and hence we infer that there were larger animals 
in ages gone by, than we have living at present ; so, future 
historians will find, in their mutilated and mouldy librai-ies, 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 83 

the remains of Webster's greatness. In the glory of his 
manhood he represented Massachusetts; defended liberty; 
symj^athized with humanity, and won the approbation of all 
good men. In the arena of debate he usually came off more 
than conqueror. He was regarded as the Senator of the 
United States. When he rose in his place, in the Council 
Chamber of the nation, with a voice of thunder and eyes on 
fire, every face was turned toward him, every tongue was 
silent, for he was clad to the teeth in armor, had a spear like 
a weaver's beam, and had been trained to battle. He has 
great self-possession, coolness, adroitness and tact; never 
was remarkable for sunshiny gaiety of imagination ; rarely 
strayed to select bright flowers in the garden of literature ; 
his attempts at wit were like the antics of the elephant that 
tried to mimic the lap-dog ; but he was emphatically great. 
He was the defender of the Constitution, and could present 
arguments in its defence with irrestible force and eloquence. 
His words were full of marrow, his logic unctuous Avith 
fatness. He defeated his opponents, not by the " delicacy of 
his tact, but by the prodigious power of his reason." There 
" was no honied paste of poetic diction " encrusting his 
speeches, « like the candied coat of the auricula," but there 
was tremendous weight in his arguments. 

Webster, in earlier days, was sublime as Chatham, classi- 
cal as Burke, terse as Macintosh, forcible as Tully. En- 
dowed, by nature, with a noble and commanding person, he 
never failed to attract attention. When excited in debate, 
his granite face glowed with intellect ; " the terrors of his 
beak, the lightnings of his eye, were insufferable." He w^as 
the king of the Senate, for nature had stamped him with the 
unmistakable mark of sovereignty, regardless of the repub- 
licanism of his country. There was grace in his gesture, 
dignity in his deportment, and humanity as well as patriotism 



CRAYON SKETCHES 



in his speeches. His voice was rich, full, and clear ; now 
thi-illing like the blast of a trumpet, now intimidating by 
the awful solemnity of its tone, now animating by its soul- 
stirring notes. Abroad, he was the lion of London, his 
noble exterior making him " a man of mark." He has coal- 
black hair, (now thickly sprinkled with grey,) a lofty brow, 
" tlie forge of thought ;" magnificent eyes ; an ample chest ; 
a patrician hand ; a face broad and dark as some of the 
fugitives he would return to bondage. See him in the 
zenith of his manhood, standing on the battle-ground at 
Bunker Hill, with kingly dignity, uttering sentiments that 
will be fresh in the memories of millions, when the shaft of 
Tranite now standing there shall have cnmibled to dust! 
Apparently as impregnable as the granite hills of his own 
New Hampshire, who supposed that he, so great and gifted, 
towering above ordinary men, was as the mountain which 
wraps the cloud-cloak about its shoulders, while a vest of 
eternal snow keeps the sunshine forever from its heart ! 
The mountain is great, sublime and lofty, but cold, barren 
and unapproachable ; it points toward Heaven, but remains 
fixed to earth. 

Daniel Webster has accomplished noble feats, for which 
he merits the gratitude of good men. Since the days of 
Washington, there has been no man so well qualified, in 
many points, for the presidency, as he. His impatience and 
irritability, in conse(iuence of his disappointment, have been 
fre(iuently exhiliited. As a last resort, he has tried to con- 
ciliate the South at the expense of the North. As a public 
speaker, he seldom enlivens his arguments with Hashes of 
wit, but he has said some keen things, which have become 
as common as " household words." At a public meeting, a 
young aspirant for i)oetic-al and political honors attempted to 
drink a toast to the honor of tlie immortal John Q. Adams, 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 85 

who was present. "Mr. Adams," said the toaster, "may he 

perplex his enemies as " here the speaker hesitated, 

and Webster thundered out, " as he has his friends." Foote 
made a fulsome speech in praise of Mr. Webster, at one 
time, in the Senate, but the " god-like " cut him short by- 
shouting " Git eotit." The Yankee twang he gave the sen- 
tence convulsed the Senate with irrepressible laughter. 

For superior specimens of pure style, lofty reasoning and 
eloquent declamation, read Mr. Webster's arguments before 
the Supreme Court, his speeches delivered in Faneuil Hall, 
his best efforts in the Senate Chamber, his unstudied respon- 
ses at public dinners and conventions, his lectures before the 
lyceums, his remarks on the great political and constitu- 
tional questions of the past and present times. Indeed, all 
are familiar with these efforts of a master mind. The pro- 
fessional skill and the parliamentary talent of Mr. Webster 
are appreciated on both sides of the Atlantic. He has con- 
tended with the ablest intellects, — stout competitors, keen 
opponents, — and always came off with flying colors, when 
he was in the right. Even his rivals give him the credit of 
being the most forcible debater in America. 

At the age of thirty he appeared in the Congress of 1812, 
and Mr. Lowndes then said of him, that the North had not 
his equal, nor the South his superior. That he has been a 
sagacious statesman, a skillful diplomatist, a profound inves- 
tigator, and the greatest thinker in America, is the opinion 
of millions of his countrymen. 



7* 



CHARLES SUMNER. 



New York is the head-quarters of commerce, a great 
wilderness of marble and mortar, the abode of merchant 
princes and millionaires. Its harbor is crowded with ships 
from every nation, its mammoth mercantile establishments 
contain every variety of fabric and produce, its streets are 
busy as a broken ant-heap, its spires point, like fingers of 
pilgi-ims, to the land of the beautiful above, and its grog- 
shops are plentiful as carbuncles on the face of the toper. 
It has the best editors, and the poorest speakers, of any city 
in the Union. Philadelphia is noted for handsome buildings 
erected on straight lines. It is the metropolis of magazine- 
dom, where Graham and Godey make gold and win golden 
honors. It is famed for the brotherly love of its inhabitants, 
which trait is beautifully displayed in the manner in which 
they get up rows and send their fellow-citizens to Heaven. 
Boston is the bank of New England, the beacon-light of 
reform, the seat of science and learning, the forum of chaste, 
classical, thrilling, heart-quaking, soul-stirring eloquence. 
There is no city in the United States that contains so much 
speaking talent as Boston. Baltimore is choleric, noisy, and 
patriotic ; Philadelphia is Avstidious, lymphatic, and meta- 
physical J Washington is like Babel, where there is a confu- 
sion of languages, or like a vineyard of lazy laborers, where 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 87 

there is a winey atmosphere ; New Yoi-k is energetic, bom- 
bastic, and original ; Cincinnati is slow of speech, but sound 
at the heart. Boston is radical, forcible, eloquent. 

Among the most eminent speakers in the modern Athens, 
Charles Sumner stands preeminently conspicuous, for the 
classic elegance of his style, the Protean power of his 
thought, and the finishetl beauty of his illustrations. He is 
one of the most remarkable men of this remarkable age, 
and favorable circumstances have rendered him the darling 
favorite of good fortune. He was cradled in Faneuil Hall, 
Judge Story was his teacher, and Harvard University the 
school in which he was taught. When he had availed him- 
self of the advantages afforded by this institution of learning, 
he made the tour of Europe. England, France and Ger- 
many contributed liberally to his store of knowledge. If he 
has not an ample competence, he has what is better — an 
army of friends and a thorough education. 

Charles Sumner is a stockholder in the bank of original 
thought. We may know he has considerable bullion there, 
for his drafts are honored at sight, and our first men are his 
endorsers. He has great power of condensation, without 
the wearisome monotony which often accompanies the writ- 
ings and sayings of close thinkers and rigid reasoners. 
There is a vigorous and graceful stateliness, an easy felicity, 
a fastidious accuracy and an imperial dignity in his style, 
which is both commanding and fascinating. There is a vast 
breadth of comprehension and a vast depth of meaning in 
his matter. There is also a luminous beauty, a Gothic gran- 
deur, a sublime gorgeousness, in his labored and polished 
essays, which entitle them to the appellation of prose poems. 
He sometimes invests his ideas in such lively, such attractive, 
such speaking, such magic language, and displays so much 
philosophical sagacity, so much poetical sensibility, so much 



88} CRAYON SKETCHES. 

profound knowledge of ecclesiastical and political history, 
the reader and the listener are carried away on the current, 
while they are admiring, almost adoring, the man whose 
kindling words have set their imaginations on fire. 

INIr. Sumner's orations are written with great care. They 
abound with allusions to the sayings and doings of the 
ancients, and manifest deep research and profound thought. 
His brilliant arguments at the bar have elicited unbounded 
admiration, and his model manner of delivery enhances the 
value of his eloquent appeals. The dreary desert of a 
common case is sure to bloom with garden beauty under his 
management. The forum, however, is his forte. He has 
the dignity of Pitt, without his pompous declamation ; the 
sublimity of Burke, without his tedious uniformity; the 
vigor of Fox, Avithout his roughness. He is not so fluent as 
the first, not so classical as the second, not so ready and 
original as the third. He has more solidity but less elo- 
quence than Pliillips ; more energy but less originality than 
Mann ; more poetry and as much polish as Everett. His 
heart is not an island, separated from his head, but a penin- 
sula, uniting one with the other. There is a relationship 
between the throb of the former and the thought of the lat- 
ter. There is a joining of impulse and intellect. The 
affections and the reflections are brothers and sisters. The 
heart thinks and feels, the head feels and thinks. 

In this respect Mr. Sumner differs from not a few distin- 
guished men. Sumner believes in Christian law, and throws 
the weight of his influence, the force of his example, and 
the skill of his profession, in the scale of the right and true. 
He is a preacher of peace, a lover of freedom, a worker for 
prison amelioration — in short, a noble soldier in the ranks 
of reform. With a generous, impulsive nature, he feels the 
woes and sufferings of every portion of the human family. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 89 

Charles Sumner is a popular man. The masses admire him 
because there is no " dough " in his face, no demagogueism 
in his politics. The turncoats, flunkeys, time-servers, office- 
seekers, and political hypocrites of every party, fear him 
as the enemies of Greece did the Athenian orator, but they 
cannot despise him, they cannot ostracise him, they cannot 
make him false to his convictions. Hence he is the man the 
people delight to honor, though he seeks no popular ap- 
plause. He is now in the prime of manhood, and the star 
of his fame is in the ascendant. In person, he is tall, well- 
proportioned, with a low but broad forehead, light magnetic 
eyes, and a luxuriant growth of dark brown hair. He has 
a long, uneven face, which is marked with the manly traits 
for which he is distinguished. His smile is very sunny and 
infectious, and his greeting very cordial ; walks with firm- 
ness, and swings his arms (especially when upon the jjlat- 
form) as though he designed to knock down the obstacles in 
his way ; has a full, rich bass voice, which becomes very 
seductive as he proceeds in his speech, enlisting irresistibly 
the attention, and appealing wai-mly to the feelings. When 
he is intensely excited, the tones of his voice move one like 
the blast of a bugle. As an orator, he has but few 
superiors. 

Mr. Sumner would excel as a diplomatist, for he has that 
peculiar ingenuity and intuitive skill which would enable 
him to disentangle the complicated questions that would 
come before him for arbitrament. When his party desire 
to .move the political world they are apt to shift it upon his 
Atlantean shoulders. Is there a great gulf between Dives 
the demagogue, and Lazarus of his own league ? — He will 
bridge over the chasm, if it can be done, and unite them in 
mutual friendship, without sacrificing truth and right on the 
altar of compromise. But some say Mr. Sumner is not 



90 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

sufficiently practical. He hopes to see the dawn of a golden 
future, and mistakes the scintillatinfir lights of the Northern 
skies for the sunrise of the millennial day. Although he is 
ambitious in worthy causes, he is wise, and patiently bides 
his time, without egotistically thrusting himself before the 
people; is fond of fame, but Avhen he is crowned Avith 
honors his modesty is equal to his gratitude. Has a Fan- 
euil-Hall-full of affectionate admirers in his own city, and 
multitudes of them elsewhere. 

As might be expected from his heart-sympathies, Mr. 
Sumner early connected himself with the Free Soil party ; 
indeed, was one of its originators, — and without question is 
one of the ablest men in it — and politicians of all shades of 
opinion will agree that that party embodies a large share of 
intellectual, moral and personal strength. Recent events in 
the political affairs of Massachusetts have placed Mr. Sum- 
ner conspicuously before the community as a candidate for 
the United States Senate.* If he should receive the honor 
of that post, he would be more of a statesman than a parti- 
san, more of a sound, humane, political economist than the 
mouth-piece of a faction — and I need not say, would do 
honor to the State he represents. His benevolence of char- 
acter never will allow him to be a party demagogue, but for 
all that gives dignity to manhood or exalts true political 
science, lije has every requisite. 



• Written before Mr. Sumner's election. 



MOSES GRANT. 

Moses Grant has obtained a world-wide celebrity, by 
his untiring efforts to ameliorate the condition of the unfor- 
tunate children of poverty and sorrow. The widow and the 
orphan have reason to rise up and call him blessed. The 
drunkard and the prisoner have abundant cause to remem- 
ber him gratefully, for his labors of love. Although 
advanced in years, he has the vigor, forecast and decision of 
the prime of life. Between the hours of eight and one, in 
the morning, he may be found every working-day in his 
office, serving the poor. Groups of men, women and chil- 
dren, of every complexion, from every country, may be seen 
at his office every forenoon, soliciting aid and advice. The 
dusky African, the mercurial Celt, the stolid Englishman, 
the chattering Frenchman, the lymphatic German, and the 
exiled Hungarian. One sits on a bench at the window, eat- 
ing a bowl of soup — another stoops down to fit a pair of 
shoes to his feet — another strips the rags from his back 
and puts on a warm jacket. Look at the procession passing 
through the gate. Here is a boy with a bag of rice, there is 
a girl with a loaf of bread, yonder is a woman with a basket 
of provisions. See that red-faced young man, — his home is 
in the country, but he last night fell among thieves, between 
Broad and Beacon streets, and he has just borrowed a sum 



92 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

sufficient to take hini to his parents. That modest woman, so 
plainly yet so neatly dressed, suflfered uncomplainingly until 
pinching hunger compelled her to solicit charity — her im- 
mediate Avants are supplied, and employment will be procured 
for her. The man with a slouched hat and seedy coat has 
signed the pledge, and left his brandy bottle among the 
curiosities in the Deacon's temperance museum. There 
comes the porter with a stack of letters and papers from the 
post-office — the former will be answered and the latter 
examined, before the rising of to-morrow's sun. 

It is now noon. The sad faced, broken-hearted, and 
down-trodden procession, has passed away from the beautiful 
residence, and the owner and occupant of the mansion hur- 
ries down to his place of business, from that to the bank, and 
then home again, in time to dine. After dinner he calls for 
his carriage and takes a poor boy to the Farm School — 
dropping in at South Boston to see the juvenile offenders, and 
calling, on his return, to see a sick woman, and administer 
such consolation and assistance as he can render. Her lips 
are white as the wild white rose, but she calls for blessings 
to descend upon kind friends whose visits are better than 
medicine to her aching frame and her breaking heart. 

The subject of this sketch is never idle. Now presiding 
at a Mass Meeting on the Common, or in Faneuil Hall, or 
in Tremont Temple — then making a speech to the convicts 
in Charlestown Prison, or visiting the paupers at Deer Is- 
land — or attending to his official business at the Board of 
Aldermen — or his duties as an office bearer in the Brattle 
Street Church, where his father served before him, in the 
same capacity of Deacon. 

His father was one of the brave men who threw the tea 
overboard in Boston harbor. Mr. Grant is the senior part- 
ner in a large paper establishment, Overseer of the Poor, 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 93 

Almoner for the benevolent who choose to contribute of 
their abundance for the relief of the distressed ; President 
of the Boston Temperance Society, and a Director in many- 
other institutions. He is a man of fortune, has a good edu- 
cation, and has visited Europe. He writes a sensible letter, 
and makes a practical speech ; is peculiarly happy in his 
remarks to children, and always a welcome visitor at all 
juvenile demonstrations. For many years he has been iden- 
tified with the temperance cause. His house, and purse, 
and heart, are ever open for the advancement of his favorite 
enterprise. He is the unfaltering friend and patron of that 
eminent orator, J. B. Gough, and stood by his side in the 
hour of trial, when summer friends forsook him. 

It is rather difficult to describe his person. The portrait 
in the American Temperance Magazine is a pretty fair 
resemblance, although not a perfect likeness. He has 
bro^vn hair — sprinkled with lines of silver — blue eyes, thin 
face, cheeks somewhat sunken, is rather under the medium 
size. He is of the nervous-sanguine temperament ; has 
a singular habit of twitching the muscles of his face and 
shrugging his shoulders when excited ; often speaks abruptly, 
when pressed with business, and does not always appear to 
the best advantage at first sight, but wears well and " im- 
proves on acquaintance." In a word, he is a man of sound 
judgment, superior business talents, a practical philan- 
thropist, and a sincere Christian. For many years he has 
been a hero in the battle-field of life, and many would be 
willing to give a dukedom to possess such green laurels 
and golden honors as he has won. 



8 



JOHN B. GOUGH. 



The snow-stoi-m last Sunday prevented many from 
attending meetings of worship. Even the saloons were not 
so well patronized as usual. The descending snow covered 
the footsteps of the unfortunate victims of appetite, as though 
the flakes had been angels of mercy spreading out their 
white wings to obliterate the way to ruin. Notwithstanding 
the inclemency of the weather, and the untravellable condi- 
tion of the streets, multitudes of men, women and children 
are wending their way to the Tremont Temple. Who is 
the magnet of attraction ? What is his theme ? Is it the 
novelty of a new comer that brings out the masses on such 
a night ? No ; the orator J. B. Gough, has spoken more than 
twelve dozen times on that same subject in the same place. 
Is it liis profound learning that enables him to invest such a 
question Avith so much interest ? No ; he is an uneducated 
man. Is he the originator or leader of a clique or party, or 
does he occupy an elevated position in the political world, 
that he commands so much influence ? No ; lie does not 
publicly indenfify himself witli any jwlitical party. He was 
formerly intemperate, and occupied an humble position in 
the ranks of the lowly poor. See him, and hear him, and 
you will then know why he fills the Temple, and, like Sam- 
son, shakes it afterwards. He is not a reasoner. He is not 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 95 

a philosopher. He is not a scholar. Look at his magnetic 
eyes — -and the light beaming on his pale forehead. Hear 
the silvery tones of his thrilling voice. See how ofF-handish 
he is. He rises from his seat as though he supposed nobody 
was looking at him. With his hands folded behind him, he 
walks to the front of the platform, and announces the num- 
ber of times he has spoken in the city. Speaks lowly and 
slowly at first, but the color that comes like a flash over his 
face, now and then advertises the uprush of blood to the 
brain. Now he has cut loose from his moorings, and is fairly 
out at sea. Every sail is set ; the wind is fair ; the ocean 
is smooth or rough, as he may choose to make it, for God has 
given him power to raise the storm, and power to bid 
the waves be still. Every heai*er is attentive. The great 
flood of faces, up-turned and side-turned, indicate the 
interest. No one leaves, unless it is some unappreciating 
dull-head — or some one whose business or indisposition 
demands him to absent himself. The orator stops not to 
round his periods, or polish his sentences. He is an actor, 
as well as an orator, and could excel as a pantomime 
player. 

I know of no man living who can tell a story better than 
he. All who hear him once are anxious to hear him again. 
What a graphic description he has just given of Felix 
McConnell ! We see the plague-spot on his face — the blood 
oozing from the ends of his bursting fingers, and gashing 
from the gaping wound, out of which his soul has fled. Now 
he tells a tale of pity, and women weep like children ; and 
strong men, "albeit unused to the melting mood," brush 
away the tears shyly, as though it were a sin to shed them. 
Now he relates a ludicrous story, and laughter shakes the 
tear-drops from fair faces, as the Summer wind sweeps the 
dew from flowers. He has been with his brethren and sis- 



% CRAYON SKETCUES. 

ters around the communion table, to-day, and he came here 
with a heart full of love to God and good will to man. His 
white-haired and venerable father sits behind, on the plat- 
form, and seems deeply interested in the addi-ess. Deacon 
Grant, his unfaltering friend, is also present. It is a storaiy 
night — the lights burn dimly — and the meeting would be 
a dull affair, were it not for the electric eloquence of the 
speaker. 

This is his farewell speech, and it is one of his happiest 
efforts. What a thrilling description he has just given, of a 
man in a boat, going over the Falls of Niagara ! We see 
the bed of the river, above the rapids, as smooth as molten 
silver. The boat glides on ; hands beckon and voices call, 
from the shore, for the man to stop — but he laughs, and 
replies that he will " hard up " the helm and pull on his 
oars in time. The birds sing, the flowers bloom — a rainbow 
is woven on the forehead of the water yonder, and a shower 
of liquid diamonds descend in the sun-light. Now the 
boat approaches the rapids ! — The unhappy man grasps the 
oars — the veins on his forehead stand out like whip- 
cords — the beaded sweat rolls like rain down his face. 
Now the boat and the man are swallowed by one wave 
and disgorged by another! — Now all is lost, for ever 

lost ! 

Mr. Gough bids his hearers farewell again, — alluding to 
the time when he was an actor, in the same building (then 
the Tremont Theatre) where he now advocates the cause of 
temperance. 

Some who read this may like to know something about 
the personal appearance of Mr. Gough. He is thirty-five 
years of age, of slender build and of medium stature. His 
temperament is nervous-bilious ; hair dark, with here and 
there a line of silver in it ; and his long, pale, thin face 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 97 

is lit up with a pair of large electric eyes. Hard 
drinking, before his reform, and hard work since, have 
creased his brow with furrows, and left the print of 
the " crows'-feet," at the corners of his eyes. He dresses 
neatly, in plain black. The writer knows, from perso- 
nal and intimate acquaintance, that he is not only a 
gifted man, but, to use a common-place expression — a 
good fellow. 

The writer heard him on another occasion, when he com- 
jilained of being tired and travel-worn, and appeared dull 
and sleepy. When his name was announced, he rose rather 
awkwardly and walked leisurely towai'd the foot-lights, with 
his hands folded behind him, and commenced speaking 
slowly, in a low tone of voice. In a few moments, however, 
the lightning began to flash from his eyes, and the thunder 
of eloquence to peal from his tongue, while his face shone 
with the inspiration of his genius. He treated his hearers 
to outbursts of pathos, inimitable humor, pungent wit, and 
thrilling facts. It was one of his mightest efforts, and was 
driven home to the heart with such force as to make a life- 
lasting impression. 

Mr. Gough's speeches are disjointed, and lack that so- 
lidity which characterizes the speeches of some of the great 
pioneers in the temperance cause ; but he is emphatically 
the man for the million. Since the day of the lamented 
Summerfield, no man has attracted so much attention and 
won so much admiration as he. Gough is generous, frank, 
and sociable, fond of sport, and enjoys a rough-and-tumble 
game of innocent fun, as well as any one. 

Altogether, he is a remarkable man, and has been instru- 
mental in accomplishing incalculable good. His eloquence 
reminds one of the onward flow of sweeping waters. The 
silver thread unwinding from a hidden spring in the moun- 
8* 



98 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

tain falls lightly at first, but gathers volume and voice as 
it proceeds, until it murmurs in the brooklet, shouts in the 
torrent, thunders in the cataract, and rolls on in beauty, 
glory, majesty and sublimity in the river, and finally swells 
the waves of the mighty ocean. 



LEWIS CASS. 



Hon. Lewis Cass is a gallant General, a good citizen, 
an eminent statesman, who has served his country at home 
and abroad, for many years, with honor to himself and 
credit to his country. He is a man of unimpeachable 
purity of character, — and his abstemious habits (unless he 
has met with a recent change) deserve the commendation 
of all good men. He is pugnacious, and often shakes his 
fist in the face of John Bull ; is ambitious, and has made 
high bids for the presidency. In his efforts to provoke the 
former and secure the latter, he has displayed his weakest 
points. 

Lewis Cass is a great man — physically and intellect- 
ually. There is nothing trashy or inane in his speeches ; 
he is not subject to poetical hysterics, and there is not much 
of the majestic or the sublime in his speeches. It is sel- 
dom that great and mighty thoughts leap from his mouth, 
as "Minerva sprang from the brain of Jove ; " but he is 
plain, practical, philosophical, argumentative, correct, and 
classical. He does not soar like an angel, but he stands 
erect like a man. He has a well-balanced, ratiocinative 
mind — deeply experienced, and thoroughly cultivated. He 
cannot, like Webster, " heap Pelion upon Ossa," until his 
opponent is overwhelmed and crushed to the dust, — but he 



100 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

digs deeply, until the victim is first undermined, and finally 
buried under his own premises. 

He is corpulent — almost gross — and has a dull face ; is 
a perfect gentleman in his address, excellent company, when 
he is sufficiently acquainted to " unbend the brow," and in 
the convivial circle he can contribute his share of merri- 
ment. He speaks French fiucntly, and is familiar with 
other languages. He is a man whom his party delights to 
honor, — and has been governor, representative, foreign 
minister, is now senator, and several times he has been 
almost President of the United States. He lives in a large, 
plain, democratic-looking house, in the beautiful city of 
Detroit. He is now ill with the ague* — the only thing that 
can shake him. Senator Douglass has recently employed 
an artist to take his portrait. Perhaps he designs to hang 
the shadow on the wall, and take the place of the substance 
himself. He is highly esteemed in Michigan, and has more 
influence there than any other man in the State. Permit 
me to record a joke, which has been exposed to the sun and 
air so long it has become dry, if not stale. '• Tell Hale," 
said Cass, " that he is a Granite goose." " Tell Cass," 
replied Hale, "that he is a Wn:\\\-gander F' 



•since recovered. 



FRANCIS TUKEY. 



Francis Tukey is the Napoleon of City Marshals. — 
Lynx-eyed and lion-heai'ted, keen as a sharper, and brave as 
a soldier, he displays remarkable skill, tact, force and fore- 
sight, when he pursues a criminal, or subdues a mob, or 
storms a gambling hell. The sight of a dirk or the snap of 
a pistol never make him absent in body, nor scare away his 
presence of mind. He is not like the giant of Rabelais, 
who could swallow windmills one day, and yet choke at the 
sight of a pat of fresh butter the next, for he never loses 
that calm, cool self-possession, so requisite in a rogue-catcher. 
The mantle of Jacob Hays must have fallen upon his should- 
ers, for when he is in pursuit of the violators of the law, 
thick walls are transparent, deep schemes are unriddled, 
and bold villains are brought to justice. 

The police force under his management has been so well 
trained that it can be employed to the best advantage. This 
civil army can be brought into service on any emergency, 
at short notice, with all the uniformity and efficiency of a 
disciplined army. 

Li our large cities, rascality is reduced to a science. Pock- 
ets are picked by rule — merchants are swindled by accom- 
plished financiers — banks are entered by the most uncivil 
engineers — gamblers go dressed like gentlemen — burglars 



102 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

are armed with false keys, bowie-knives and revolvers. 
Consequently, a Marshal must have the courage of Crom- 
well, the zeal of Luther, if he would be a terror to such evil- 
doers, and a praise to those who do well. He must not only 
have a head to contrive, but a heart to feel, also. He must 
not be like the man who, because he had passed through 
the Custom-House, supposed the Government had tahen off 
the duties he owed his fellow-citizens. While the guilty 
must be punished the innocent must be protected. 

Marshal Tukey is a native of Maine, by profession a 
lawyer. He is in the full vigor of manhood, about five feet 
nine inches in height, of good mould, and his head is phren- 
ologically well developed ; his hair smooth, and black as the 
wing of a raven ; eyes large, dark and piercing ; face pale, 
thin and thoughtful ; forehead quite intellectual ; mouth well 
cut, and his smile is quite infectious. He has recently con- 
nected liimself with the Temple of Honor, in this city. • He 
never was habituated to the inordinate use of intoxicating 
drink — consequently he had no appetite to contend with. 
He would have united with that noble institution long ago, 
had it not been for the fact that every disinterested deed 
performed by a public man is sure to be regarded by the 
selfish as political manoeuvring for place and power. 



WILLIAM R STACY. 

-*^©@*«" 

William R, Stacy is a plain, business man, whose 
hands and heart and soul are earnestly engaged in the total 
abstinence reform. In season and out of season, he is the 
same untiring, uncompromising and unflinching champion of 
the cause. In Societies, in Sections, in Divisions, in Tents 
and in Temples, he is known as an efficient worker. Fair- 
weather friends and summer-fly advocates of abstinence 
doctrines are constantly rebuked by his unyielding adher- 
ence to the letter and the spirit of the pledge. Temperance 
thermometers, whose mercury is sure to rise and fall, ac- 
cording to the state of the atmosphere, wonder with open 
mouths and open eyes, and leathern ears and leaden brains, 
why Mr. Stacy denies himself the lazy ease which they 
misname enjoyment. Politicians, who can accommodate 
themselves to every sect in religion, to every party in poli- 
tics, to every shade of society, and, like chameleons, assume 
the color of the community in which they move, are aston- 
ished that a man of his tact and influence, and persevering 
energy, does not attempt to reap laurels and gain gold in 
the field of political action. Those who need not envy the 
donkey its redundancy of ear, are surprised that such a 
sensible man should engage in such " small business." 

Captain Stacy is President of the Parent "Washingtonian 



104 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

Temperance Society, in this city — an institution which has 
been in successful operation for eight years, during which 
time hundreds and thousands have been added to its mem- 
bership. This good Samaritan society not only secures 
names to the pledge, but feeds the hungry, clothes the desti- 
tute, visits the sick. It has been instrumental in healing 
hearts that were broken, and restoring to society men who 
had degraded themselves by the use of strong drinks. 
Through Summer and Winter, Spring and Autumn, fair 
weather and foul weather, Mr. Stacy has attended the meet- 
ing of this society. 

His friends seem to appreciate his worth by heaping 
honors upon him. The last two years, he was Most Worthy 
Associate of the National Division. He is now Most Wor- 
thy Templar of the National Temple. These distinctions 
have fallen upon a worthy man. There is no poetry, no 
tinselry about his speeches. His thoughts are clad in a 
thin covering of scanty words. He works noiselessly and 
out of sight, but very effectually. Is there a cross to carry, 
his shoulders are chosen to bear the burden. Is there 
money to raise, /n's financiering skill is called into exercise. 
Is there a mammoth meeting to be held, he is expected to 
make the necessary preparations. 

Mr. Stacy is in the prime of life, a man of common stat- 
ure, has dark hair, large light eyes, an honest face, a good 
development of benevolence, and firmness enough to render 
him obstinate Avhen opposed — providing he has reason to 
believe he is on the right side of the question. Few men 
are so well acquainted witli the " workings " of the Na- 
tional Temple as ho ; few men have more influence in the 
great national temperance movement then he. It is evident 
that he accepts office for the purpose of extending the 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 105 

sphere of liis usefulness, and not for the gratification of his 
personal vanity. 

He never occupies much time in his public addresses — 
does not stop to dissect his dictionary for choice language, 
but speaks out in manly style the thoughts that are upper- 
most in his mind. He is not a classical scholar, and never 
tries to pass for more than he is worth, by awkward 
attempts at rounding periods and polishing sentences. His 
striking characteristics are generosity, energy, perseverance, 
courage, and common sense. 



ELIZUR WRIGHT. 

For thee, my country, thee, do I perform 

Sternly, the duty of a man bom free ; 
Heedless, though ass, and wolf, and venomous worm 

Shake ears and fangs, with brandished bray at me. 

Elliot. 

Elizur Wright is the translator of La Fontaine's 

Fables, and the editor of the Commonwealth. Mr. "Wright 

is an original and subtle writer, has great power of analysis, 

and often flings the golden light of a vivid imagination over 

the productions of his pen. He may be styled the prince of 

paragraphists, and yet he often is as unidiomatic, angular 

and jargonic as Carlyle. Common objects and hackneyed 

subjects, viewed through the kaleidoscope of his fancy, have 

a charm which attract the attention of persons competent to 

appreciate his thoughts and illustrations. He usually writes 

on practical questions and every-day transactions, and in his 

peculiar way endeavors to remove evils, correct abuses, 

expose hypocrisy, denounce cant, condemn bigotry, and 

enforce the principles of universal freedom in church and 

state. When he assails a public man who has not been 

faithful in the discharge of his duty, he reminds one of the 

Rev. Sydney Smith, who had expended a great deal of 

elaborate censure on an English minister. Said he — "I 

do not attack him for the love of glory, but from the love of 

utility, as a burgomaster hunts a rat in a Dutch dyke, for 

fear it should flood a province." 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 107 

Few men exhibit more versatility of talent than Mr, 
"Wright. He can translate a French fable, write a popular 
song, originate a love story, dash off a leader for a news- 
paper, prepare an essay for a review, or rise up and make a 
speech, at short notice. Examine his spicy and S2)irited 
sheet, and you will see that it scolds like a cynic, reasons 
like a logician, while it glows with eloquence and gleams 
with poetry, and looks like a pretty woman in a fit of 
passion on a washing-day — scolding and slapping the little 
" brats " about her. 

Mr. Wright sympathizes with the spirit of reform, which 
is now moving on the mighty deep of intellect ; but he is so 
paradoxical at times, it is difficult to define his position. He 
looks upon black coats and white neck-cloths with suspicion, 
and is apt to crow whilst he chronicles defections in the 
church. He is an ordinary speaker, and never could attract 
much notice in the forum. His voice is weak, utterance 
slow, manner unattractive, but his matter is original and 
startling. He appeals to the people to look beyond their 
larders and their libraries, their farms and their factories, to 
gaze up higher than the steeples of their churches. He 
divides society into mice, owls, eagles, men, angels, and 
gods. 

Our subject is a domestic man — a kind of Utopian utili- 
tarian. Few women can beat him at sweeping the floor, 
making the bed, or dressing a baby. At home, he is often 
up to his elbows in the kneading-trough and wash-tub. It 
is quite common to see him write with one hand and rock 
the cradle with the other. There are not many families in 
New England under better management than his. The 
oldest boy, who is now in his teens, is a famous and skilful 
teacher of music. 

Mr. Wright has just passed the meridian of life ; is a 



108 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

small, thin man, of the nervous-bilious temperament; face 
strongly marked, indicating unbending endurance, unfalter- 
ing energy, and transparent honesty of purpose ; bead large, 
(.'Specially in the region of the reflective faculties. I should 
think benevolence, ideality, comparison, causality, combative- 
ness, and philoprogenitiveness the most prominently devel- 
oped organs. His editorials are quoted extensively in every 
part of the land. Elloquent extracts might be taken from 
the columns of his paper, and made into a saleable book. 
His sparkling sentiments, comical illustrations, witty con- 
ceits, droll humor and pat quotations are mixed up with 
theology, philosophy and science. 

In a word, Mr. "Wright is a scholar, a poet, a genius ; he 
is obstinately independent, indignantly in earnest, and un- 
mercifully severe. Notwithstanding all this, he would 
make a good conductor, if he had not so many cars attached 
to his engine. 



JOHN M. SPEAE. 

— ^©®®*<— 

There are but few of the unfortunate inmates of the 
houses of correction, the jails and the prisons in New-Eng- 
land, who can with propriety say to John M. Spear, " I 
was sick and in prison, and ye visited me not," He devotes 
himself almost entirely to the welfare of that neglected class 
of our fellow men, whose accidents and crimes have deprived 
them of the privileges which are the birthright of a free 
people. The poor prisoner, clad in the dress of a convict, 
was doomed to toil at the loom, the crank, the forge, the 
bench and the wheel, and pass through the same routine 
until death or the turnkey came to his relief, and apparently 
no one cared for his soul or his body. Sometimes the inno- 
cent suffered with the guilty, and often the guilty were pun- 
ished beyond their deserts. But the sun of the nineteenth 
century now illuminates the moral heavens, and as the natu- 
ral sun shines on the evil and the good, even so do the 
golden rays of this glorious luminary shine through the 
grated window of the prisoner's cell, and the true light 
reveals the fact that the convict stained with sin and har- 
nessed with iron, is our brother. He has been badly educa- 
ted, or temptations that might have overcome the Pharisee 
that scorns him, have proved his ruin ; or he has inherited 
from his parents a bad organization of brain ; or he has 
9* 



110 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

voluntarily surrendered himself into the hands of the evil 
one ; or evil communications have corrupted his good man- 
ners. Although a criminal he is an object of commiseration. 

Mr. Spear not only sympathizes with these violators and 
victims of the law, but he gives them good moral lessons. 
When they are arrested, he flies to their assistance, — pro- 
cures counsel, or pleads their case himself. If they are 
found guilty, he labors to mitigate their punishment, petitions 
for pardons, and obtains employment for them when their 
term of imprisonment expires. His pen and purse, his 
tongue and time are given freely, cheerfully, constantly, to 
this work of righteousness. Carlyle would call Mr. Spear 
a rose-water reformer, a pink-and-senna philanthropist, a 
benevolent Bedlamite, — but he is really the Howard of 
America. He has travelled hundreds of miles, collected 
thousands of dollars, delivered scores of speeches, and 
written volumes of pages, to defend the prisoner. He has 
shielded the innocent from impending punishment, and alle- 
viated and abbreviated the sufferings of the guilty, by bring- 
ing to light palliating circumstances that would have been 
buried in darkness. During the session of the Police Court, 
he may be found among the lawyers and reporters, prepared 
to assist the unfortunate and the guilty. He is an out-and- 
out reformer, and is not afraid to assail any form of evil, 
however large its bulk or hideous its horns. He is a sensi- 
ble speaker, but not an attractive one ; a calm reasoner, but 
not an eloquent one. In a word, he is a plain, practical, 
every-day sort of a man, whose look and manner convinces 
one of his sincerity. 

Not unfrcquently Mr. Spear starts off from the city into 
the country, without knowing beforehand wliere his tour will 
terminate. He travels under the hallucination that an invis- 
ible and spiritual agency is directing him to a destination 



CRAYON SKETCHES. Ill 

whei'e his services are needed. He is a tall, lean, boney 
man, with a black wig, a sallow skin, and a mouthful of large 
teeth. lie wears a " can-I-help-you ? " sort of a look, and 
speaks so gently and moderately, the listener, if ever so 
much excited before, becomes calm and feels at home, as in 
the presence of a friend and a brother. He is a Universa- 
list minister, a temperance lecturer, an abolition promoter, 
an anti-hanging, anti-war advocate. His brother Charles is 
just like him, and is the editor of the Prisoner's Friend, a 
magazine, ably conducted. These brothers are aa much 
alike as the Siamese twins. 



JOHN AUGUSTUS. 



John Augustus is the drunkard's friend. Most of Lis 
time is spent in the Police Court. Wlien the unhappy dis- 
ciples of Bacchus are brought into court, charged with 
drunkenness, they are usually fined two dollars and costs — 
the whole sum amounting to five dollars. It seldom hap- 
pens that a common street-drunkard can raise that amount 
of money immediately after a " spree," and to prevent his 
being sent to the House of Correction, Avhere he would be 
divorced from his friends and disgraced in his own estima- 
tion, this noble philanthropist steps forward with the funds 
in one hand and the pledge in the other, and in many 
instances succeeds in restoring the man to his family, and 
restraining him from the use of strong drink during the 
remainder of his life. 

Mr. Augustus is an ordinary looking man. His hair, 
which is now (piite grey, hangs like a mop over his fore- 
head, as though he determined the organ of benevolence, like 
many of his kind deeds, should remain unseen. When he 
goes into court, his face looks as though he had died during 
the night, and had been galvanized into life before he got 
up in the morning. His saffron-colored skin is covered witli 
wrinkles, from the tip of his chin to the top of his forehead. 
In that respect he is the most remarkable man I ever saw. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 113 

He is nervous and fidgety, when opposed. His labors of 
love are appreciated by some of the disinterested philan- 
thropists of Boston, and they contribute magnanimously to 
sustain him. More than half the sum expended by him, in 
paying fines for drunkenness, is refunded by the parties who 
have been benefitted by his generosity. Mr. Augustus 
makes no pompous display, no noisy parade, about this mat- 
ter ; but day after day, and year after year, he visits the 
court and spends his time in watching over the welfare of 
the down-fallen and degraded. 

Mr. Augustus is a good man, whose heart is as large as 
his head. He is far above mediocrity, in point of " good 
feeling." The " prisoner's friend " and the " drunkard's 
friend" are both poor men, but they are the unfaltering 
defenders of the humble and the despised, and on*the great 
day of account many will rise up and call them blessed ! 



FATHER TAYLOR. 



Such vast Impressions did Ids sermons make, 

He always Kept his flock awake. Dk. Wolcott. 

I venerate the man whose heart Is warm, 

Whose hands are pure, whose doctrines and whose life 

Coincident, exhibit lucid proof 

That he is honest in the sacred cause. Cowpeb. 

One Sunday morning I went to the Sailors' Chapel in 
Boston, to see and hear the far-famed mariner's preacher, 
Father Taylor. He was reading the familiar hymn which 
commences with the well-known lines, " Come, thou fount of 
every blessing," when I entered the house of worship. The 
choir wedded the Avords to music — the Divine blessing was 
invoked — a chapter was read — and then the sixteenth 
verse of the third chapter of Colossians was selected as the 
basis of the discourse. The striking peculiarities of the 
eccentric and celebrated preacher cannot fail to attract the 
attention of the seamen and landsmen who attend his church. 
He rises clumsily from the sofa in the i)ulpit, and puts his 
fore-finger on the text as though he anticipated the danger 
of losing it, or was determined to stick to it. After reading 
it distinctly and deliberately, he is pretty sure to raise the 
spectacles from his eyes and let them rest over the organs 
of causality. 

Father Taylor does not ape the ck-rical stilfness which so 
ill-becomes those who strive to make up in dignity what 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 115 

they lack in devotion and intellect. When he walks the 
pulpit floor, like a caged lion, or pounds the desk with his 
fists, there seems to be, and doubtless is, honesty in his zeal. 
When he distorts his weather-beaten face, and swings his 
out-stretched arms about him, and shakes his lean fingers in 
the faces of his heai'ers, Ave see that he has in him the ele- 
ments of a good actor. He is an odd genius, and I have no 
hesitation in affirming that he will utter more wise sayings 
and more sayings that are otherwise, in a single sermon, 
than any other man in Massachusetts. Not unfrequently he 
mixes his pathos and humor so evenly, the listener knows 
not whether to laugh or weep. One minute he appeals to 
Heaven, in a strain of sublimity that excites your admii-ation 
and astonishment ; and the next moment he appeals to Mr. 
Foster, or some other member of his congregation, in a style 
not comporting with the idea most men have, of the dignity 
of the pulpit. Now, with compressed lips, grating teeth and 
flashing eyes, he denounces some vice or some heresy, in 
words steeped in a solution of brimstone ; and then, with a 
smiling countenance, upturned eyes and outspread hands, he 
lavishes encomiums on hope, faith, love, virtue, piety. Now 
he pours out a torrent of adjectives, as though he resolved 
to exhaust the vocabulary ; then follows a stream of nouns, 
from his unfailing Cochituate of language. His sermons 
are ornamented with gems of poetry. 

The following extracts from the sermon I heard a week 
or two since, will give the reader a tolerable idea of his 
matter ; — his manner is unreportable, for he is the Booth of 
the Boston pulpit. " Some men," said he, " will lie for a 
glass of grog, and some women will lie for a cup of tea. If 
God respects some sinners more than others, there will be a 
back hole in hell for liars." " Who are so low, vile, mean, 
hateful, as the wholesale dealers and the retail pedlars in 



116 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

lies?" lie prefaced a quotation from Pro vei'bs with these 
words : " Solomon was a wise old fellow, although he had 
strange notions about some things." Speaking of back- 
sliders, he observed : "They slide by raoonshining and de- 
ceiving themselves." lie ridiculed, with bitter severity, the 
Oratorios of the present day ; said that " profane lips dared 
to imitate the groans of Christ upon the cross. Infidels, 
with instruments of music, endeavoring to show the suffer- 
ings of the Saviour in the garden — the driving of the nails, 
the dripping of the blood upon the accursed tree — and they 
mimicked the blast of the angel's trumpet." It was an elo- 
quent and just rebuke to those wlio trifle Avith sacred things. 
Father Taylor is a plain-looking man, and his bronzed 
face is strongly marked. He is now in the sunset of life, 
and his head is thickly sprinkled with grey hairs. When 
excited, his voice is harsh, and conveys the impression to 
the mind, that the " man behind it " hates the Devil more 
than he loves Jesus. He is volcanic, and is often guided 
more by impulse than by intellect. Although he is in the 
autumn of his years, he can perform more service, endure 
more hardship, and preach better sermons, than half the 
young preachers of the present day. 



ELIHU BURRITT. 

" Our country is the world ; our countrymen are all mankind."— Amon. 

A SHORT time ago the friends of peace called a meeting 
at the Park Street Church, for the purpose of appointing 
delegates to attend the World's Peace Convention, on the 
banks of the Maine. In consequence of the inclemency of 
the weather, and the un-business like manner in which the 
meeting was advertised, there were but few persons present ; 
but the distinguished gentlemen who were called upon to 
address that audience might have consoled themselves with 
the reflection that what their assembly lacked in number it 
made up in talent, learning, influence, and moral worth. 

The chief object of attraction, at this meeting, was Elihu 
Burritt, the " learned blacksmith." He sat on the first seat 
opposite the pulpit, with his back toward the audience, his 
head resting on his hand, and his eyes closed most of the 
time, during the delivery of the speeches. Thomas Di*ew, 
Jr., immortalized as Burritt's " blower and striker " at the 
forge and anvil of reform, was busy with pencil and paper, 
in one of the side pews. The hearers waited peaceably but 
impatiently for Mr. Burritt to take the rostrum, and when it 
was announced that he would speak, every countenance 
became radiant with joyful anticipation. Mr. Burritt arose 
in a quiet, unpretending manner, and modestly responded to 
the invitation to speak. He stood on the top stair of the 
10 



118 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

t 

pulpit, and at first seemed to shrink back bashfully from the 
gaze of the upturned faces before him. Although he is no 
coAvard, I have no doubt his heart beat as though it would 
batter a breach through its tenement Avhen he first unsealed 
his lips in the presence of that assembly. In fact, the con- 
tour of his face, and the tones of his voice, are the tell-tales 
which publish his lack of self-conceit. 

Mr. Burritt is now in the meridian of his manhood, but 
his premature baldness is his apology for wearing a Avig. 
He has a towering forehead, but, owing to the large devel- 
opment of the perceptive faculties, it appears to retreat. I 
think his eyes are blue, when they do not blaze. His face 
indicates perseverance that Avill not falter, and integrity that 
Mill not disappoint. He speaks sloAvly, distinctly, and forci- 
bly, Avithout ever uttering a foolish thing. He has a pecu- 
liarity of tone Avhich is unreportable, but Avhich tells Avith 
thrilling effect on the hearts of his hearers, Avhen he enters 
earnestly into the subject he discusses. All Avho have heard 
him must acknowledge that his matter is as full of thought 
as an egg is of meat. He employs fixcts and statistics in his 
speeches and editorials, but they have the varied beauty of 
the rainbow, and the golden glow of sunlight, Avhen vicAAcd^ 
through the prism of his rich imagination. 

The foUoAving extract from the London edition of the 
little volume entitled " Sparls fro7?i the Anvil," Avill give the 
reader an idea of Mr. Burritt's style of writing. In an 
article on temperance, he alludes to the history of a distin- 
guished statesman Avho had been snatched as a brand from 
the liquid burning: — "And he Avas found, Avitli all the 
resuscitated vigor of liis talents, exhiming, as it Avere, his 
felloAv beings, avIio, like him, had been buried before they 
were dead. Massachusetts welcomed him back to her era- 
brace with emotions of maternal joy, and invited the return- 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 119 

ing pleiad to resume his rank among the stars of her crown. 
The doors of her halls and churches were thrown open to 
the newlj-returning prodigal, and many were touched to life 
and salvation, at the burning eloquence which fell from his 
lips. Sister states heard of this new Luther in temper- 
ance, and he obeyed their call. He stood up in their cities 
like Paul in the midst of Mars Hill, and, with an eloquence 
approaching inspiration, set forth the strange doctrine of 
total abstinence." That man, unfortunately, was led astray 
by fiends in human form, but a band of Washingtonians 
persuaded him to sign the pledge once more, and this time 
it was an unviolated policy of insurance against the fires of 
destruction. He concluded that graphic sketch in the fol- 
lowing words : — " That man is again a giant, and he is 
abroad ; look out for him ! Like Samson, he is feeling for 
the pillars of the temple of Bacchus, and he will ere long 
revenge the loss of his locks by a mighty overthrow of that 
doomed edifice." 

It affords the writer no small degree of pleasure to lift up 
the curtain which hangs between the past and the present, 
and look back to the time when the now eminent champion 
of peace first put on his paper cap and leather apron, and 
made the forge blaze and the hammer ring. He did not 
dream, then, that he one day would " beat swords into 
plough-shares and spears into pruning-hooks." His friends 
did not at that time give him credit for any striking mani- 
festations of genius. To use his own words, he was a 
"plodding, patient, persevering" lad, gathering by "the 
process of accretion, which builds the ant-heap, particle by 
particle, thought by thought, fact by fact." In this way he 
worked and studied, night by night, for years, with " blis- 
tered hands and brightening hope," at lessons which have 



120 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

made him shine a star of the first magnitude in the firma- 
ment of fame. 

In the Summer of 1838, Governor Everett, of Massachu- 
setts, in an address to an association of mechanics in Boston, 
took occasion to mention that a blacksmith of that State 
had, by his unaided industry, made himself acquainted with 
fifty languages I Prior to this announcement, INIr. Burritt 
had lived in obscurity, and the fame of his acquirements 
did not extend beyond the smoke of his work-shop. When 
Mr. Nelson called on Mr. B. at Woi'cester, he found him at 
his anvil. "When told what the Governor had reported 
respecting him, he modestly replied that the Governor had 
done him more than justice. It was true, he said, that he 
could read about fifty languages, but he had not studied 
them all critically. Yankee curiosity had induced him to 
look at the Latin Grammar ; he became interested in it, and 
persevered, and finally acquired a thorough knowledge of 
that language. He then studied the Greek with equal care. 
An acquaintance Avitli these languages had enabled him to 
read, with ecjual facility, the Italian, the French, the Span- 
ish, and the Portuguese. The Russian, to which he was 
then devoting his odd moments, he said, was the most diffi- 
cult of any he had undertaken. He went to Worcester to 
secure the advantages of an antiquarian library, to which 
the trustees allowed him free access. He spent eight hours 
at the forge, eight hours in the library, and the remaining 
eight hours of each day in recreation and rest. After he 
had studied Hebrew, and made himself acquainted with its 
cognate languages — the Syraic, Chaldaic, Arabic, Samaritan, 
Ethiopic, &c., he turned his attention to the languages of 
Europe, and studied French, Spanish, Italian, and German, 
under native teachers. He then pursued the Portuguese, 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 121 

Flemish, Danish, Swedish, Nox'wegian, Icelandic, "Welsh, 
Ga?lic, Celtic, &c. 

It is somewhat remarkable that a man who has devoted 
so much of his time to the acquisition of languages that he 
is a living portable polyglott, should have such mighty 
mathematical powers. Figures tumble from his pen like 
seeds from a sack when the string is untwined from its 
throat. There are but few men of past or present times, 
that can excel him in description. Take the following 
graphic sketch of the iron horse, as a specimen of his skill 
in that department of literature : — 

" I love to see one of these creatures, with sinews of brass 
and muscles of iron, strut forth from his smoky stable, and 
saluting the long train of cars with a dozen sonorous j)ufFs 
from his iron nostrils, fall back gently into his harness. 
There he stands, champing and foaming upon the iron track, 
his great heart a furnace of glowing coals, his lymphatic 
blood is boiling in his veins, the strength of a thousand 
horses is nerving his sinews — he pants to be gone. He 
would ' snake ' St. Peter's across the desert of Sahara, if he 
could be fairly hitched to it ; but there is a little, sober-eyed, 
tobacco-chewing man in the saddle, who holds him in with 
one finger, and can take away his breath in a moment, 
should he grow restive or vicious. I am always deeply 
intei'ested in this man, for, begrimed as he may be with 
coal, diluted in oil and steam, I regard him as the genius of 
the whole machinery, as the physical mind of that huge 
steam-horse." 

Mr. Burritt believes that God has made of one blood all 
the nations of the earth, and he aims to unite them by the 
fraternal chain of brotherhood. He looks upon war as an 
inexcusable evil, and labors manfully for its extirpation. 
He would dismantle the arsenal, disband the army, spike 
10* 



122 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

the cannon, and reforge the cutlass ; he would take our ships 
of war and " lade them down to the water's edge with food 
and covering for human beings." " The ballast should be 
round clams, or the real quahaugs, heavy as cast iron, and 
capital for roasting. Then he would build along up, fdling 
every square inch with well-cured provisions. He would 
have a hogshead of bacon mounted into every port-hole, 
each of which should dischai'ge fifty hams a minute, when 
the ship was brought into action ; and the state-rooms should 
be filled with well-made garments, and the taut cordage and 
the long tapering spars should be festooned with boy's jack- 
ets and trousers. Then, when there should be no more 
room for another cod-fish or herring, or sprig of catnip, he 
would run up the white flag of peace. He would throw as 
many hams into the city in twenty-four hours as there were 
bomb-shells and cannon balls thrown into Keil by the be- 
sieging armies ; he would barricade the low, narrow streets 
with loaves of bread ; would throw up a breast-work, clear 
around the market-place, of barrels of flour, pork and beef, 
and in the middle raise a stack of salmon and cod-fish as 
large as a small Methodist meeting-house, with a steeple to 
it, and a bell in the steeple, and the bell should ring to all 
the city bells, and the city bells should ring to all the people 
to come to market and buy provisions, without money and 
without price. And white flags should every where wave 
in the breeze — on the vanes of steeidcs, on mast-heads, on 
flag-stones along the embattled walls, on the ends of willow 
sticks, borne by the romping, laughing, troojjing children. 
All the blood-colored drapery of war should bow and blush 
before the stainless standard of peace, and generations of 
Anglo-Saxons should remember, with mutual felicitations, 
the conquest of the white flag, or the storming of (Quebec." 
Mr. Biirritt has made his mark upon this age — a mark 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 123 

which time will not erase. His society is courted by the 
great men of Europe and America. He quietly suggests 
a world's convention, and Senators, members of Parliament, 
Baronets, and crowned heads, hearken to his counsels. He 
is the same great and good man, whether in the smithy, 
talking with the hard-handed nailers, or in the magnificent 
forum, pleading for peace, in presence of the dignitaries of 
the land. He strives to smite off the clanking manacles 
from the uplifted hands of the bleeding slave, and to strike 
down the monster that wades in blood, and to build up the 
temple of universal peace, and to weld the world in an un- 
broken band of eternal brotherhood. He sees a spirit of 
selfishness abroad that would rob earth of its flowers and 
heaven of its lights, disinherit the angels, uncrown the 
Almighty, and sit upon the throne of the universe. So he 
has unfurled the white banner, and is now leading the crusa- 
ders of a good cause, to a battle where no blood will be 
shed, but where that evil, selfish spirit will be subdued, and 
peace shall triumph ! 



THURLOW WEED BROWN. 

Thurlow "Weed Broavn is the editor and proprietor of 
the Cayuga Chief, a spicy and spirited sheet, published at 
Auburn, New York. Mr. Brown is one of the most notice- 
able men in the Empire State. He is remarkable for indom- 
itable perseverance, steam-engine energy, and unfaltering 
courage. It is quite evident nature designed him for a 
leader, and he knows it ; consequently, he not only com- 
mands the white-skins, but is " Chief of the Cayugas " also. 

With no education but such as he picked up in a common 
school in the country, and no capital but that of brains and 
bones, he has established on a permanent basis one of the 
raciest reform journals in the realm of newspaperdom. 

Although obstacles arose, like Alps on Alps before him, 
he bravely surmounted them, and pursued the uneven tenor 
of his way — bringing the timid time-servers and purse- 
proud pretenders who opposed him, to their marrow-bones. 

He is rough and brilliant, like a rock abounding with dia- 
monds ; few men living have more power of origination, — 
and I hazard the Jissertion that he has written and spoken 
as many queer, witty, pithy, pointed and brilliant sentiments 
as any man of his age in his native State. It is generally 
acknowledged, by those who read his paper, that he com- 
mands a fascinating pen. Who ever saw a copy of the 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 125 

Chiefs out of his office, unfolded and unread ? It is true 
that he is not always classically correct, in all he says and 
writes, and yet he makes fewer mistakes than many of our 
college-bred literati. The trees, with their branches point- 
ing to the land of living spirits, and their roots pointing to 
the land of dead bodies, have been his teachers ; and he has 
read the poetry of God in the country, written in letters of 
lilies, violets, and roses. Nature has spoken to him from 
beak and brook, and cloud and cataract, and he hearkened 
to her voice, and ever worships at her sylvan altar. There 
is the tinge of an opulent fancy glowing in his speeches and 
gleaming in his essays. Not long since, he aAvoke one fine 
morning and found himself famous, as an orator. His 
speeches consist of stirring appeals, strong arguments, and 
appropriate anecdotes — tied together with poetical senti- 
ments. " If you disregard our petitions this year," said he, 
addi'essing the Legislature at Albany, " next year we will 
send petitions here with boots on." Did the limits of my 
book permit, I would furnish some specimens of his style. 
One thing I wish to notice : he is sometimes careless, and 
allows his pen to gallop, unbitted, over column after column 
of editorial matter ; and he I'arely, perhaps never, re-writes 
an article. 

And I may say here, that his speeches are uneven. In 
one place he will deliver a thrilling speech — full of humor, 
wit, pathos, and argument — in another place he will be 
devoid of unction, and his address will be insipid as the 
essence of flat-irons. Such is apt to be the case with all 
men of true genius. Your mediocrity men are always the 
same ; they never soar above their hats, and never dive 
below their boots. 

Mr. Brown is now in the prime of life, — a man of ordi- 
nary stature and ordinary features. He has a large, well- 



126 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

balanced head, a long, rough, honest face, blue eyes, broad, 
high forehead, brown hair, and plenty of it — not only on 
his head but on his face, in the form of whiskers and goatee. 
In conversation, he is sociable, pleasant, gentle and modest, 
almost awkward — in consequence of his bashfulness. His 
pen is pugnacious, and while it pricks like the quill of a 
porcupine, it now and then di'ops a blot of egotism on the 
page it writes. 

Mr. Brown will never die of the consumption, for the en- 
largement of his heart has caused an expansion of the chest. 
May he long live, to punish the wicked — whether they look 
from the gothic window of a wine-palace, or the grated win- 
dow of a prison. 



EDWARD BEECHER. 



Oh, -what Is man, Great Maker of mankind ! 

That Thou to him so great respect dost bear,— 
That Thou adorn'st him with so bright a mind, 

Wakcst him a king, and e'en an angel's peer ! 

Sir Johk Davies. 



Edwakd Beecher is a close thinker, a cogent reasoner, 
an impassioned speaker. His sermons are not elegant essays, 
got up for the entertainment of his hearers. They are not 
blank verse wire-drawn into very blank prose ; not pearls 
and diamonds and precious stones, all stolen except the 
string that ties them together. They are true-blue, orthodox 
sermons, full of Beecher, truth, spirit, and scripture. They 
are living, breathing, talking sermons — famous for great 
thoughts and simple words. 

Mr. Beecher is a fluent and forcible speaker, and makes 
use of the simplest (not always the purest) Saxon in his 
discourses. In his happiest mood his voice is often raised 
to a high pitch, and he soars with untiring wing higher, and 
higher still, and still higher, until his head is among the 
stars, and his face — like the countenance of Moses on the 
mountain — reflects the radiance of inspiration. He not 
unfrequently produces a thrilling effect by reiterated strokes, 
and by presenting epithet after epithet, figure after figure, 
fact after fact, argument after argument, appeal after appeal, 
which flow on like the waves of the sea, exciting the alarm 
of the unconverted who have spread their sail upon the 



128 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

waters of life, without provisions or pilot, and exciting the 
admiration of those who have, and those who hope they 
have fair prospects for reaching the liaven of rest. 

Mr. Beecher has studied mental philosophy, and is well 
versed in theology ; has considerable knowledge of the ways 
of the world, for, unlike many of his cloth, he docs not deem 
it a duty to shut himself up in his study continually, for fear 
of rendering himself " too common " to excite the wonder of 
the people on the Sabbath. There are some clergj^men who 
keep themselves as wild as beasts are kept in a menagerie ; 
you cannot see them without a ticket, and then you must 
keep at a respectable distance. Why, it is more diificult to 
obtain an interview with some ministers, than it is to have 
a tete-a-tete with the Pope of Rome ! If Paul, with his 
hands hardened at tent-making, or Peter, fresh from his 
fishing-tackle, were to solicit an opportunity to preach in 
their pulpits, they would give Peter and Paul such a re- 
sponse as the Pharisees of old gave them. Dr. Beecher is 
not one of that class of spiritual teachers. You will see 
him in the streets, and at the exchange, in the reading- 
rooms, in the police court, at the public meetings in Faneuil 
Hall and Tremont Temple. He is a sociable, accessible, 
generous man, and capital company where he is sufficiently 
acquainted to " unbend the monkish brow." It is because 
he mingles Avith the people that he is in advance of many 
of his clerical Ijrethren. 

But Edward Beecher, like the rest of us poor mortals, 
has faults. He often seems to attempt to Avork uj) his feel- 
ings to a pitch of intense excitement. Under such circum- 
stances there will be noise without eloquence, extreme 
gesture without extreme unction. In that way he exchan- 
gee the sublime for the sledge-hammer style. He has a 
good share of moral courage. Like his brother, the 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 129 

" Thunderer " in Brooklyn, he assails with tongue and pen, 
from the pulpit and the press, the tergiversation, the coat- 
turning, the mouse-ing, the meanness of public men, who, 
for laurels or lucre, basely betray their country with a 
kiss. 

The Brooklyn Beecher is almost constantly throwing shot 
and shell into the camp and court of the enemy. Some 
poor fool in his congreg.ation became offended with him, the 
other day, because he publicly rebuked the recreancy of a 
l^rominent politician who recently betrayed his country, and 
put a crown of thorns on the bleeding brow of humanity. 
This nervous simpleton put down on paper the unpalatable 
sentiments he could not swallow, and had them published ; 
and Sir Oracle, the editor, in all the pomp of pigmy gran- 
deur, undertook to lecture H. W. Beecher on the duties of 
preachers ! His labors were lost ; for it does not run in the 
blood of the Beechers to be frightened at pop-guns in the 
arms of grasshoppers. Dr. Lyman Beecher, speaking of 
his two distinguished sons, said, Edward fires forty-pounders, 
and woe betide the man that he hits. Henry fires grape- 
shot, and kills the most men. 

Edward Beecher is in the zenith of his manhood. He 
has used his brains more than he has his teeth, consequently 
his head looks older than his face. His hair is now turnins 
grey ; his forehead is broad and high, and indicates extraor- 
dinary intellectual power ; his eyes are large and expressive, 
and bum like meteors, when he hides himself behind the 
cross and pleads earnestly for the welfare of men and the 
glory of God. He is one of the editors of the Cungrega- 
tionalist, a religious journal of great merit. He is also 
pastor of the church in Salem Street. At one period of his 
life, he was President of one of the Western colleges. He 
is a man of unimpeachable purity, has a highly cultivated 
11 



130 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

and strong mind, and is esteemed and honored in the walks 
of private and public life. Go and hear him, and he will 
prove, beyond doubt, that whatever is lovely in innocence, 
pure in virtue, good in morality, thrilling in eloquence, sub- 
lime in poetry, or holy in truth, may be found in the 
Bible. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER. 



Henry Ward Beecher is one of the boldest thinkers 
and bravest speakers in America. He not only wages war 
with unpopular vices, but has the courage to seize national 
evils by the throat ; the mealy-mouthed Janus-faced politi- 
cian, \f\vi\G, fishing for votes and catching suckers in the ale- 
house, he holds up to everlasting indignation and contempt ; 
the gambler, who in the great game of life " stakes his soul 
and lets the devil win it ; " the lecherous libertine, whose 
look is lust, whose touch is pollution ; the miser, who cheats 
the pale sewing girl, and defrauds his apprentice ; the 
drunkard ; the death-dealer ; the oppressor, are all scourged 
by him ; and every word he speaks is a blow ; every blow 
inflicts a wound. Were he more ambitious than religious, 
he might employ the irreverent language of Pope, and say, 

" Yes, I am proud to see 
Men not afraid of God, afraid of me." 

Mr. Beecher has studied the great folio of nature, and he 
can read men, whether they be bound in boards, sheep, or 
calf. He seems to be acquainted with the haunts and the 
habits, the slang and the signs of the great army of sinners. 
He never was a drunkard, but he speaks like one fresh from 
the spirit land ; he never was a gambler, yet he speaks 



132 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

about high, low, jack and the game, as though he had studied 
the pack as well as the Book ; he never was a dandy, but 
he knows " how such die of a rose in aromatic pain ; " he 
never was a demagogue, yet he knows how to unmask the 
demagogue. Mr. Beecher's invaluable lectures to young 
men comprise one of the richest galleries of word-painting 
to be found in the world of literature. Now he shews us 
an obese, greasy, wheezing, broken-down political hack ; 
then a ripe, rosy, plump, luscious rascal, " whose spotted 
hide covers a tiger ; " here we see a lank, lean miser, who 
would fling his last penny into his chest, sit upon the lid and 
swallow the key for fear he might lose it ; there we see the 
drunkard, with his floating eyes and fiery face, &c., &c. 

Mr. Beecher has a style of his own ; it is more figurative 
than argumentative, more popular than classical. He has a 
fervid imagination, and although he seldom soars to the sub- 
lime, the beautiful is quite accessible to him ; his humor is 
like a spirited colt — difficult to ride and hard at the mouth, 
sheering from the road frequently at the sight of its own 
shadow. He has great power of origination, and the skill to 
Beecherize what he borrows until it becomes his own. His 
mind is not a mint where every piece of metal bears the 
impression of a die, but a mine where gold can be obtained 
by the ingot ; and he is a fool, and not an alchymist, who 
rejects it because there is some dross mixed with the 
precious ore. 

He is a popular, but not an eloquent speaker ; his matter 
is more entertaining than his manner. He is grapliic, 
thrilling, earnest, forcible, but the burden of his reputation 
seems to encumber him. Could he drop the load and still 
retain the fame, as Christian did his bundle while he kept 
the roll, he would be elocpient as he is famous. When he 
goes from his closet to his pulpit, he has great power over 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 133 

the minds of his hearers ; his sermons peninsulate the 
preaclier with the congregation. 

The subject of this sketch has more courage than most 
men of his cloth. While some of his cotemporaries made 
an auction block of the pulpit, and sold the Saviour in the 
person of the slave, for a few pieces of silver, or for fear of 
offending the " silver greys," he uncringingly denounced the 
damnable deed, and employed his prolific pen and tongue in 
defending the down-trodden and oppressed. His sermons 
and editorials are not still-born ; they have open eyes and 
throbbing hearts, and they will continue to live and speak, 
when the wicked efforts of those who betray humanity will 
be forgotten ; or if remembered, remembered with scorn. 

Mr. Beecher is about thirty-five years of age, of common 
size and stature ; has brown hair, blue eyes, pale complex- 
ion ; a noble head, and thoughtful face. He puts on no 
awkward airs of assumed dignity, but is sociable, pleasant, 
and communicative. He is not only admired, but loved by 
the people of his charge. I will conclude this imperfect 
and hasty sketch, in the words of Hood, — 



' Thrice blessed is the man with whom 
The gracious prodigality of nature — 
The balm, the bliss, the beauty, and the bloom. 
The beauteous Providence in every feature — 
Kecall the good Creator to his creature ; 
Making all earth a fane, all heaven its dome ! " 



IP 



MASSACHUSETTS STATE OFFICIALS. 

-►**©•♦"- 

George S. Boutwell, Governor of the State, was born 
in Brookline, in 1818. Opened a shop in Groton, where he 
sold innumerable articles of domestic use. A real son of 
the Bay State — thrifty, prudent, sensible, shrewd, " knows- 
a-thing-or-two." Liked very much by his townsmen ; sent 
to the Legislature, for the first time, in 1842, and soon made 
an impression. An able debater, skilful tactician, confiden- 
tial leader of his party, (Democratic,) then in a minority. 
"Was often appointed on some very responsible committees, 
and, in later years, on some of the most important com- 
missions established by the Legislature. 

In 1851, the Coalition made him Governor, the considera- 
tion being that Mr. Sumner should be the United States 
Senator. He has discharged his duties admirably. Affects 
popularity ; seldom refuses to be present where invited, and 
is fond of military displays, agricultural fairs, educational 
demonstrations, &cc. He is a temperance man ; liberal in 
politics, though too cautious in speaking out his honest con- 
victions ; looks too much to his own popularity. It is said 
a portion of his inaugural address was examined by alarmed 
politicians. Nevertlieless he has much merit as a citizen, a 
magistrate, and a man. He wants to go to the United 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 135 

States Senate for the next six years, (but probably can't,) 
as he has signified he shall not again be a candidate for 
Governor. Has a firm reliance in the popular expression. 
He is in faith, a Unitarian ; in works, a Utilitarian ; in 
ideas, a Trinitarian. 

Amasa Walker, for the last and present year Secre- 
tary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, was born in 
Woodstock, Conn., in 1799. He first entered the Legisla- 
ture in 1849. Now resides in North Brookfield. Was 
originally a Democrat, but early left that party and united 
with the Liberty party. In 1848 he was active in establish- 
ing the Free Soilers. Is a large boot manufacturer, in 
connection with his brother Freeman, and doing an immense 
business. Has no trouble in getting Southern custom, not- 
withstanding his Fx-ee Soilism ; he knows that Southerners 
won 't go barefoot, (although they do not live in a free coun- 
try,) for the sake of prejudice, and they can 't manufacture 
boots themselves. 

Mr. Walker was formerly a resident of Boston, and active 
as a merchant. Deeply interested in all moral enterprises, 
he was in early life associated with a society of young men, 
who, by writing articles for the newspapers, public addresses, 
&c., manufactured public opinion to a degree that removed 
all booths from the Common, on election and other holidays, 
redeemed Beacon Hill from its then disgraceful reputation, 
and otherwise blessed the community. An early temper- 
ance advocate, a strong anti-slavery man, an eloquent peace 
advocate, — in fact, one of Elihu Burritt's life-guards; a 
friend of the abolition of the gallows — all from principle. 
Clear-headed, forcible, decided ; a true republican, a real 
democrat, of and for the people. In 1849 he was sent as a 
Delegate to the World's Peace Convention, at Paris. As 



136- CRAYON SKETCHES. 

Secretary of the Commonwealth, he never had a superior ; 
everj^tliing is in No. 1 order. As a legislator, he is one of 
the ablest. He is the father of the Secret Ballot law, and 
also of many popular measures. In person, tall and thin. 

Henry "Wilson, now President of the Senate, is a native 
of the Granite State. He has seen life in various phases, 
having been School Teacher, Shoe Manufacturer, Member 
of the House of Representatives, Stump Speaker, State 
Senator, Delegate to the Whig National Convention, Chair- 
man of the Free Soil State Committee, General of the 
Third Brigade, &c., &c. He is well skilled in Military and 
Political Tactics. As a speaker he succeeds admirably, 
because he does not attempt to pass for more than he is 
worth, and he exhibits that plain, practical common sense, 
which Massachusetts men never fail to appreciate. He has 
the faculty of dove-tailing one thought into another, and 
welding link after link into the chain of argument, with 
which he binds his opponent, which is quite alarming to 
political dandies. 

Mr. Wilson is not more than forty years of age, and yet he 
has risen from humble life to an honored chair in the Senate 
Chamber ; and this marvellous feat has been accomj)lished 
without the assistance of high social position, or lofty educa- 
tional attainments. He has not yet attained his full growth, 
— there is a shining future before him. 

He is a modest man and never forgets an old friend — 
never assumes an aristocratic or patronizing air. There is 
none of that lack-a-daisical insipidity or miminee piminee 
style of flash-and-go-out brilliancy, which too freijuently 
characterize men who are suddeidy elevated to posts of 
honor. 

Mr. Wilson is a fresh, hearty man, in the zenith of life. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 137 

He is about five feet nine inches in height, well proportioned, 
and his frame indicates great vitality, strength, and endur- 
ance. His head is somewhat bald on the crown ; his fore- 
head white and broad ; hair dark ; eyes darker ; cheeks 
ruddy ; and lips red and full. He converses and presides 
well and impartially, without any swelling efforts at magis- 
terial dignity. May his shadow never be less ! 

Edward L. Keyes, the " rabid " reformer, sits next to 
Judge Warren. He is the editor of the Dedham Gazette, 
one of the most spirited weeklies in the United States of 
America. Mr. Keyes has just risen, to explain and defend 
the Maine Law bill. He is a tall, thin man, with a pleasant 
face which is lit up with a pair of dark, dreamy eyes. I 
discovered a few threads of silver in his dark hair. How 
he stretches out his arms and shakes his lean fingers in the 
faces of his fellow Senators ! He gives the Judge slap after 
slap in the face ; — the recipient of the blows not relishing 
such a flagellation, whirls his chair around and turns his 
back upon the orator — but the lash of adders falls upon 
the slioulders of the victim, and vitriol is poured upon the 
red and gaping wounds. 

Keyes is ferociously sarcastic ; he leads the subject of his 
sarcasm like a lamb to the slaughter, and skins it alive, re- 
gardless of its imploring looks. See the Judge scowl, and 
twirl his spectacles, and shift his position ; but Keyes keeps 
on, every word is a wasp buzzing in the ear and stinging to 
the quick; — there is electricity in his utterance. I am 
sorry that he now leaves the question before the Senate to 
defend the " Coalitionists." Such a course is untimely, and 
uncalled for, and almost unpardonable ; the temperance ques- 
tion need not become a party question. 

Mr. Keyes is a brilliant man — violent, vituperative, and 



138 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

eloquent. His voice is deep and clear, and has that peculiar 
intonation which indicates that a man stands behind it. 
He flings the burning fluid of his indignation in every di- 
rection, and it burns in the hearts and on the faces of Sena- 
tors and spectators, " one half of whom are ready to fight, 
and the other half ready to hurrah." 

Charles H. Warren — the mouth-piece of the million- 
aires of Boston — has just arrived and taken his seat, on 
the left side of the President's chair. If he is a man of 
common calibre, then there is no truth in physiognomy or 
phrenology. The firm step, the compressed lip, denote obsti- 
nate energy ; the towering forehead and beaming eyes indi- 
cate extraordinary force of intellect. The Judge is nearly 
sixty years of age, Avith a silver-grey head, bald on the 
crown ; blue eyes, patrician mouth ; is short, stout, and 
firmly built, dresses neatly, and looks like a " fine old Eng- 
lish gentleman." He is an irresistible wag, and the fun he 
makes to match the arguments arrayed against his reprehen- 
sible course on the Liquor Bill, reminds one of the fiddling 
of Nero while Rome was on fire. 

He brings down the house in roars of laughter, so as to 
startle the Sergeant-at-Arms, who looks as though he would 
be after the outsiders with a sharp stick, unless they 
governed their risible faculties. Still, he trembles while he 
rattles off" his jokes, and looks like a man just taken from 
the whijjping post, who cracks his hon-ynots while the blood 
is streaming from his Avounds. Doul)tless his object is to 
divert the attention of the hearers, but it is evident he has 
no sympathy with the masses. He is elegant in his manner, 
and eloquent in his utterance — brimful and running over 
with genuine wit — dealing out his jokes as Sancho, in 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 139 

Don Quixote, ladled out fat pullets and fat geese from the 
soup kettles, every time he made a dip. 

Myron Lawrence is the oldest member and the largest 
man in the Senate. If size of body infallibly indicate equal 
mental and moral capacity, he is large enough to represent 
more than one constituency, for he is a man " with Atalan- 
tean shoulders fit to bear the weight of mightiest monarch- 
ies." His address is bold, frank, full of bon kommie, afford- 
ing unmistakable evidence that his soul is not dispropor- 
tioned to the magnitude of his physical organization. Speak- 
ing of himself, he says he has a hide like a rhinoceros; — 
if he really thinks so, he does not properly understand him- 
self, for he is sensitive and loves the approval of his friends, 
as much as he dreads their displeasure. As a speaker he 
has but few equals in the Senate ; and his speeches are more 
remarkable for depth than longitude. He is sociable, gener- 
ous, and get-at-able ; though strictly temperate, he loves the 
good things of this life. He has dark brown hair, half-shut 
eyes shaded with fat, a face plump and fair as the full moon, 
— is six feet tall, and weighs not less than three hundred 
pounds. 

Anson Burlingame is probably not more than thirty 
years of age, — is about five feet eight inches in height, and 
fairly proportioned ; has dark brown hair, usually brushed 
smooth as a bird's Aving ; — broad white forehead, indicating 
strength of intellect ; — blue, magnetic eyes, and fair com- 
plexion. It is quite evident that he is fond of fame, and is 
extremely solicitous to secure the good opinion of his 
friends. Indeed, he is not reluctant to put himself to great 
inconvenience to accommodate others ; — naturally gentle and 
generous, with impulse and intellect pretty evenly balanced. 



140 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

He possesses the true vivida vis of eloquence, — and when he 
repents in sackcloth and ashes, over the unfortunate speech 
he made against the Maine Law, he will be a man the people 
will again delight to honor. His style is what may be 
termed poetical, and yet he displays a good degree of terse- 
ness and conciseness ; is sparing of uniting particles and 
introductory phrases, and usually employs the simplest forms 
of construction. Knowing, as he does, that he is a universal 
favorite, he has taken the liberty to oppose the wishes and 
disappoint the expectations of his constituents, on the great 
question of the present age. Perhaps he and his historical 
friend may use the language of Hudibras : — 

" And have not two saints power to use 
A greater privilege than three Jews ? " 

Samuel E. Sewall is a descendant of one of the 
oldest families in Massachusetts. For a long time he has 
been an out-spoken, non-compromising abolitionist, — latterly 
associated with the Liberty and Free Soil parties. He is a 
man of upright intentions, generous sympathies, enlarged 
views, and unimpeachable purity of character. Bred to the 
profession of the law, and mingling in the busy scenes of 
life, he has been a close observer of men and measures. 
Though naturally quiet, modest, and unobtrusive, when 
aroused he defends himself and his friends with energy and 
power. 

In the late effort to enforce the "infamous Fugitive Slave 
law," he was a prominent actor on the liberal side. Volun- 
teering to act as counsel for the hunted bondman, on the 
memorable night Sims was arrested, some of our officials 
lodged him in the Watch-house for the time, an honor he 
may bequeath as an heirloom to his children's children. Li 
person he is rather short and slight ; hair quite grey ; eyes 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 141 

blue ; complexion fair. He wears his snow-white collar 
rolled over a thin cravat, and looks like a school-boy with 
his head powdered. As a speaker he is faulty ; he talks in 
a low, quiet, deferential manner, as though he supposed his 
hearers knew more about the subject than he did himself, 
and has a habit of fumbling in his pockets, as though his 
ideas were in his purse. Notwithstanding all this awkward- 
ness, the attentive listener will discover freshness of thought, 
soundness of logic, and purity of purpose. He is probably 
fifty years of age. 

James T. Robinson was born in South Adams, Berk- 
shire County, in 1822 ; educated at schools and academies, 
and graduated at Williams' College, in 1844. He had pre- 
viously studied law in his father's office, (who is one of the 
ablest lawyers in Berkshire,) and on his graduation was 
admitted to the Berkshire bar, and went into partnership 
with his father, where he still remains. In '44, he stumped 
Berkshire for Henry Clay, in company with Rockwell, 
since honored by a seat in Congress. In 1848, left the 
"Whigs and joined the Free Sellers, at great risk of business 
interest, popularity, &c., where he still remains. 

Next to Burlingame, he is the youngest man at the Sen- 
ate Board. Lightish complexion, greyish eyes, acquiline 
nose, thinnish in build. A graceful, earnest, whole-souled, 
nervous speaker. Reputed to be one of the most eloquent 
men in Berkshire, as he certainly is at the Board. A warm 
advocate of the Temperance and Anti-Slavery causes. He 
has rendered signal service for the new Liquor Bill, — by 
his exertions it was materially improved. He has rare 
talents, and is one of the most promising young men in the 
State, and a worthy follower of the eloquent Sumner. 

12 



142 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

Caleb W. Prouty is one of that rare class of legisla- 
tors wlio seldom talk, but always rightly vote. He is a fit 
representative of the Old Plymouth Rock district — stead- 
fast, frank, pure, principled. He is not a " brilliant " man ; 
does not patter and spatter like many ; but shines with a 
clear and constant light. Clearly understanding his subject, 
he lets his action speak louder than his words. Yet he is 
not reserved or distant, but cordial, fraternal and highly 
sympathetic. Few men, probably, have a larger number of 
personal friends among his townsmen and constituents 
than he. 

Mr. Prouty is a native of Scituate ; was born in 1810; 
has generally been a merchant or trader, yet never before 
the present year held a seat in the Legislature. He is one 
of the constants who are always in their seats. He voted, 
recently, on every proposition affecting the new liquor law, 
and what cannot be said of all the Senators, never voted 
wrong, in my judgment. As a member of an important 
committee, having in charge one of the great interests of the 
State, he has rendered signal service. 

Mr. P. is of good build ; open, pleasant face, set off with 
bright blue eyes. His hair is brown, rather thin, and stands 
up from a well-developed forehead. He dresses like a sub- 
stantial man, rather than as a foppish one. He is active as 
a temperance man and Free Soil Abolitionist. In faith he 
is a I^nitarian. 

CiiAHLES T. Russell is an intellectual looking man, of 
the nervous temperament, has a pale, thin face, wears specta- 
cles, and has made a spectacle of himself, by his hide-and- 
go-seek course on the Liquor Bill. He professes to be 
devout ; pretends to be a friend to the cause he stabbed in 
the house of its friends, speaks freely and frequently, 



CKAYON SKETCHES. 143 

although he does not saj much. "Walks as though self- 
esteem had some influence over his heels and his hands. 
He is occasionally eloquent, and can reason when he takes 
the trouble to think before he speaks ; has a good mind, a 
good education and generous impulses, but he lacks the 
courage to follow his convictions. He has not a verv asrree- 
able voice, and has the bad habit of emphasizing the most 
unimportant words ; nevertheless, is urbane, pleasant and 
sociable ; — 

" Tls with our judgment as our watches, none 
Go just alike, yet each believes his own." 

Thomas G. Gary is a tall, spare gentleman, of elderly 
years, with curly, silver hair, long pale face, blue eyes, and 
a well-developed forehead. He is polite, pleasant, and con- 
ciliatory, squeamishly particular in matters of dress and 
address. Wishes to suit all people generally, and his own 
clique in particular. It is evident he has looked at only one 
side, and that the wrong side, of the subject of temperance. 
He is a calm, cool, moderate speaker ; seldom soars to the 
realm of eloquence ; never sinks into the unbridged gulf of 
vulgar and personal abuse. He never spins out long-winded, 
flimsy speeches ; never wearies the listener with antithetical 
sentences ; but generally gives you the point-blank truth, in 
the plainest and purest Saxon. 

Christopher A. Church is a tall, agreeable man, with 
bright eyes, sharp, thin face ; he is about forty years of age, 
speaks fluently and distinctly, without wasting words ; he is 
sound on moral questions, and highly esteemed for his social 
qualities and amiable disposition. His Maine Law speech 
proves him to be no common thinker. He is engaged in 
mercantile pursuits, and much esteemed by his townsmen. 



144 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

George H. Kuhx, of the Suffolk delegation, is one of 
the most useful Senators. As chairman of the important 
Committee on Mercantile Affairs and Insurance, he is hard- 
working, faithful, and expeditious, yet not slovenly. His 
labors are most complete. Without exception, I am told, 
he personally drafts more bills and resolves than any other 
member. He is a Boston man, by birth and residence ; born 
in 1795; entered the Legislature in 184G; largely interested 
in the Western Railroad, of which he is one of the Direct- 
ors. A little, sprightly, pleasant, bald, spectacled, polite 
man, whom every one respects. Does not speak often. 

Charles C. Hazewell is a Rhode Islander by birth, 
and a type-setter by profession ; and though entitled to the 
" Hon." from his position, finds more acceptable homage 
when addressed as a "jour, printer." He was born in 
1815, entered the Legislature for the first time the present 
year, and resides in the pretty town of Concord. He is of 
good size, full forehead, bright eyes, white, transparent face, 
which shows every thought ; wears silver-bowed spectacles. 
As a I'eader of history, but more particularly as a remem- 
berer of it, he probably has not his superior. He lends a 
charm to any debate when he brings this vast knowledge 
into requisition. A most industrious man and cordial com- 
panion, though quickly excited at a supposed affront. Has 
edited innumerable jiapers, and written many of the ablest 
reviews which have appeared in print. He is a determined 
o])ponent of the Maine liquor law, but a frank and honest 
one. At present he is the ])olitical editor of the Boston 
Times. * 

John S. C. Knowltox, Freeman Walker, (brother 
of Amasa,) and Moses Wood, of the Worcester delega- 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 145 

tion, are substantial, talented, and influential members, 
though they talk but little. They are fit representatives of 
the intelligence and worth of the " heart of the Common- 
wealth," — prompt in their places, and faithful in their duties. 

Whiting Griswold is the picture of health, ease, and 
good nature ; yet his full forehead, and bright dark eyes, 
denote considerable intellectual power. In personal appear- 
ance he makes one think of the well-to-do country landlord, 
whose cordial welcome guarantees a loaded board, clean bed, 
and the best of care. He is not far from forty years old, 
rotund person, wears a blue coat with bright buttons, has 
a rosy cheek, and the most candid address. He is the sole 
representative of Franklin County, in the valley of the 
Connecticut, (of which he is a native,) is now regarded as 
one of the ablest leaders of the Democratic party in the 
State. As a speaker, he is sound, clear, thorough, well- 
informed, and though not a brilliant, is a very interesting 
debater. When roused to vindicate himself, or measures, 
or party, there is no half-way work with him. His digni- 
fied, calm utterance has great power. It needs but few 
words from him to make all the wit and facetiousness of 
Judge Warren appear the most contemptible twaddle. Mr. 
Griswold is a lawyer, and holds the responsible post of 
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. 

Zenas Bassett, of Barnstable, is a noble son of the 
sandy Cape. He is a native of the town and county he rep- 
resents ; followed the seas for many years, and settled down 
at last to receive the respect his many virtues command. 
He is tall, thick-set, with furrowed brow, grey hair, small, 
bright, laughing eyes, benevolent features ; is sixty or more 
years of age ; wears a dark blue frock-coat, and dark dress 
12* 



146 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

generally. Has the air of a substantial, sensible, generous, 
retired ship-master. One feels as though it would have been 
pleasant to sail in the same craft with him. An indefatigable 
worker ; always present ; seldom addresses the Board, but 
when he does, is plain and practical. Is a Whig of liberal 
views. 



Edmund Kimball, of the Essex delegation, is a genial, 
pleasant, faithful legislator, prompt and able. Takes life 
as easily as he does an occasional pinch of snuff. Loves 
to crack a quiet joke with his neighbors or the Clerks. Lives 
up in Bradford, on the Merrimack, and is much esteemed as 
a citizen. Quite a temperance man, as well as Free Soiler. 
He is a morocco-dresser by trade, but there is no prunella 
in his composition. 



Charles Hubbard is an artist of some celebrity. I 
am told he is a faithful committee-man, and invariably in his 
seat. He is interested in various public enterprises ; some- 
what, though creditably, particular to have everything under 
his charge well arranged and complete. He is a prominent 
citizen of Chelsea, and has served in various honorable 
capacities, but is as much identified with the interests of 
Boston as of the place of his residence. 

Oliver Ames, Jr., is a silent member, but a practical 
worker and an eloquent voter ; a man of middling stature, 
with small, sharp eyes. Li business, he is a shovel maker, 
doing a large business, and is helping to dig the grave of 
the autocrat Alcohol. He is a man of liberal views, of 
"Whig politics. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 147 

Charles W. Slack, Assistant Clerk of the Senate, is 
highly esteemed by members of all parties for his many 
excellent attributes, and is an universal favorite in the 
large cii'cle of his acquaintance. As a friend, he is true as 
steel to the pole ; genial as sunshine ; generous to a fault ; 
always polite and pleasant, and never fails to give a favor- 
able interpretation to the words and deeds of others. He 
speaks easily and eloquently, but with too much constrained 
gesture ; writes readily, forcibly, accurately. His stirring 
speeches and classical essays show that neither his sympa- 
thies nor attainments are meagre. Although much in pub- 
lic life, he is rather retiring in his nature ; distrusts too 
much his own abilities ; frank and open, and despises shams, 
whether of manners, measures or men. In person, he is of 
medium stature ; light complexion ; nervous-sanguine tem- 
perament ; has blue eyes ; light, silky hair ; prominent fore- 
head ; thin, pale face ; wears glasses ; dresses neatly. He 
is a Boston boy, was brought up in the Journal office, and 
has been editorially connected with the Excelsior and New- 
Englander. Has I'endered good service as a Temperance 
and Free Soil lecturer ; and among his other accomplish- 
ments is a creditable phonographic reporter, and when desi- 
rous of it can have an enviable reputation thereby. A great 
lover of mirth, though he makes little himself. 

Nathaniel P. Banks, Jr., Speaker of the House, is the 
man for the position he occupies — sharp, shrewd, impartial, 
polite, and thoroughly familiar with parliamentary usages. 
He knows every member at a moment's glance, and while he 
looks at the man (rising to speak) with one eye, he looks 
through him with the other, and announces his name, imme- 
diately and distinctly. Mr. Banks seldom makes a blunder, 
and he has tact and talent to conceal or correct many of the 



148 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

mistakes made by those whose bad manuscript and worse 
grammar would be a caution to the ghost of Lindley Mur- 
ray, if read verbatim et literatim et punctuatim, from the 
Speaker's chair. He usually wears a brown frock-coat, buff 
vest, black stock. Mr. Banks has dark blue eyes, uncom- 
monly expressive ; a thin, pale, intellectual face; a plentiful 
supply of dark hair, (somewhat tinged with frost, although 
he is not yet forty years of age,) which is brushed so as to 
leave one temple bare, while it hangs down to the eye-brow 
on the other side. 

He is a native of Waltham, born in 1816; first entered 
the Legislature in 1849 ; was elected Speaker of the House 
of Representatives in 1851, and re-elected in 1852 — proba- 
bly one of the youngest presiding officers that ever graced 
the woolsack. He was brought up as a machinist and toiled 
with his hands, and exercised his brains by way of pastime. 
Self-educated. It is said that at one period he was an active 
fireman, and ran with the " machine," and, on holiday occa- 
sions, donned the red shirt, buff pants and leathern cap, — 
of late so distinguishing a mark of the brave and preemi- 
nently cold-water men. He subsequently left the work-bench 
for the ofiice and green-bag, and was admitted to the Mid- 
dlesex bar, where he has distinguished himself more by the 
faithfulness of his services to his clients than the receipt of 
an immensity of business. He has always been very popu- 
lar in his native town, and could always be elected to repre- 
sent it when every other man failed. Is of Democratic sym- 
pathies, and always has been, but inclines to liberal views. 
He is entitled to great credit for working his way so high in 
life, under adverse circumstances. 

.Torn Milton Earle is a fair specimen of a Massachu- 
setts legislator, — honest, candid, and independent. He is a 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 149 

native of Leicester, born in 1794, and first entered the 
Legislature in 1845. For many years he has been editor 
of the Massachusetts Spy, the oldest newspaper in the State, 
and one of the most influential. Mr. Earle is a Friend or 
Quaker, wearing the broad-brimmed hat, (when not in his 
seat,) and straight-cut, standing-collared, brown coat, though 
in many respects not so rigid in his observance of the pecu- 
liarities of the sect as many of his brethren. In 1848, he 
united with the Free Soil party, and took with him his 
paper, which has a very large circulation among the farmers 
and thinking men of Worcester County, and the consequence 
was, the heart of the Commonwealth became the centre of 
the new political party, throwing the heaviest majorities for 
its candidates, — which position it retains to this day. 

Mr. Earle is quite tall and spare ; has a sharp, grey eye, 
though the general character of his face is mild and pleas- 
ant; his hair is straight, white and thin, as though it had 
withstood many storms, as indeed it has; his features are 
well wrinkled. He is clear-headed and sound on general 
questions. As a speaker, more interesting than brilliant, but 
his defect is that he talks too much. If his ammunition 
were saved for occasional battery-discharges, instead of 
constant pistol-snaps, more execution would be done. As a 
tactician, he is not the best — the truth being, he is too old 
and too candid for such nice work. Mr. Hopkins, this year, 
accomplishes in this respect much more successfully what 
Mr. Earle undertook last year. As a writer, Mr. Earle is 
terse, pungent, straight-forward, guided solely by principle, 
and ever alive to the necessities of the suffering. His age, 
character, and social position fully entitle him to the soubri- 
quet of " Father Earle." 

Erastcs Hopkixs is considered the leader of the Free 
Soil wing of the Coalition, in the House. He was born at 



150 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

Hadley, on the Connecticut, in 1810, and first entered the 
Legislature in 1841. In many particulars he is quite con- 
servative and orthodox, like nearly all the dwellers in the 
Connecticut valley. By profession he is a clergyman of the 
Unitarian faith, though of late he has not preached, but 
obtained his subsistence by a connection with railroad enter- 
prises. He is a man of not very prepossessing appearance, 
being sallow in complexion, of lightish-red hair and whisk- 
ers, and homely features. But when in conversation or 
debate, his whole appearance is changed — he becomes 
seemingly inspired. As an orator, he is bold and brilliant, 
appearing to best advantage, however, when favored with a 
little previous preparation. He was commissioned by the 
Governor, recently, to convey to Kossuth the official invita- 
tion to visit Massachusetts, and it is said his speech on the 
occasion of the interview even transcended in sublimity and 
grandeur that of the great Hungarian himself. Surely, it 
reads grandly. He is a ready manager, and nobly conducts 
the party in its parliamentary duties. His opponents find 
in him an able, yet courteous antagonist. A noble specimen 
of a Western Massachusetts man. 

William Sciiouler, one of the leaders of the House, is 
a Scotchman by birth, and entered upon his career as a 
Legislator in 1844, in the thirtieth year of his age. He is 
a man of large sympathies, and though wedded to a ]>olitical 
life, does not carry his party antipathies into the social or 
domestic circle. He is the i)rincipal editor of the Atlas, 
the leading Whig paper of New-England, if not of Boston, 
where Daniel Webster is supremely worshipped. But in 
this devotion the Atlas was always lukewarm. Mr. S. estab- 
lished his reputation as an editor, among the spindles of 
Lowell, and when he came to Boston, spit the cotton from his 
throat, and affected to stand on free ground. 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 15i 

He is a tall, thin man, with brown hair, bkie eyes, and 
light complexion. At present noting, he has a rosy, healthy 
face, beaming with laughter and good nature. As a speaker, 
he is not very fluent, but generally interesting. His manners 
are rather awkward, as though he were so long he did not 
know how to care for his person. A man of great persever- 
ance, but not always so consistent for the right in liberal 
politics, as some others. He is considered a good tactician, 
and has successfully carried through the House, heretofore, 
some important measures, solely by his persistence and skill. 
Is a great lover of festive gatherings, and presides admirably. 
He has held a commission in the Artillery service, has the 
title of Colonel, and is President of the Scots' Charitable 
Society. Is blessed with a lovely family, and resides in one 
of the prettiest cottages in East Boston, overlooking the 
protecting castles of the harbor. 

Horace E. Smith is the champion of the Massachusetts 
Maine Law in the House. His opening speech was a mas- 
terly effort, and deserves to be written in letters of gold. 
While he sets a proper value on moral suasion, he advocates 
the use of coercive measures, when appeals and argument 
are powerless. He has studied the bill critically, and is 
thoroughly acquainted with all its provisions, and prepared 
to meet all the objections that may be raised against it. 
The great service he has rendered the good cause of tem- 
perance, will put a feather in his cap of which he and his 
descendants will be proud. 

He is a pale, slender, graceful man, in the meridian of 
life ; has a bold forehead, blue eyes, and brown hair ; wears 
glasses ; dresses neatly ; speaks earnestly and distinctly, 
from a wise head and a warm heart. Success to him and 
his cause ! 



152 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

James S. "Wiggin is the champion of the anti-temper- 
ance party, the leader of the opposition to the Maine 
Law, in the House. Although not a profound thinker, and 
quite an indifferent speaker, his perseverance and earnest- 
ness help to make up such deficiencies. In his recent 
defence of the rum-traffic, he was quite embarrassed, and 
acted so awkwardly that not a few of the grave faces pres- 
ent gleamed with fun, at his ludicrous blunders. His manu- 
script and his memory did not tally, for when he made an 
effort to speak extemporaneously, he soon found himself 
floundering in the mire, — and when he referred to what he 
had written, he made the discovery that he had taken the 
wrong sheet ! Then, again, he was uncourteously chocked off, 
before he had time to wind up his speech. Notwithstanding 
all those difficulties, he gave one of the best speeches that 
have been made in either branch of the Legislature on that 
subject. 

He is a tall, graceful, good-looking man, with sharp eyes, 
dark hair, and ruddy countenance. He is about thirty-five 
years of age ; is engaged in mercantile pursuits, and would 
have to sacrifice what he calls property in the event of the 
passage of the law which he fights so ferociously. He is a 
keen man of business, — brave and energetic, — and will 
" stick at nothing " to defeat the bill he hates with perfect 
hatred. 

James Small is the oldest member (not the oldest man) 
in tlie House. He is a plain, farmer-like looking person, 
nearly sixty years of age ; has a broad chest, bronzed face, 
grey head, and bright eyes. Speaks out bluntly and fear- 
lessly, with his spectacles in his hands ; abounds in dry 
jokes; commands the respectful attention of the House. 
He hails from the " right arm of tlie Commonwealth." 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 153 

ExsiGN H. Kellogg may be styled the leader of the 
Whig section of the House, having occupied formerly the 
Speaker's chair, and for the last two years, been his party's 
candidate for the same honor. He is a native of old Berk- 
shire, was born in 1812, educated to the law, and made 
his debut as a legislator in 1843. In the memorable con- 
test which preceded the election of Charles Sumner to 
the National Senate, Mr. Kellogg most adroitly man- 
aged the Whig opposition, delaying action, and involving 
the Chair in a series of paidiamentary intricacies, from which 
a man less skilful tlian Speaker Banks could hardly hope to 
be relieved. His former experience as the presiding officer, 
gives him superior advantages to most of his party for this 
sort of warfare. 

Mr. Kellogg is an easy, clear, forcible debater, abounding 
in good humor, and occasionally keen retorts. His hits at 
opponents are oftentimes exceedingly clever. In person, he 
is of good stature, well built, with full face, bright grey eyes, 
dark hair " all up in a heap," weai's black-bowed, lawyer- 
like spectacles, and has an inexpressible look of hon hommie 
and fun. I should judge he was cons-iderable of a joker, as 
I know he is extremely sociable. A man of great force of 
character, and doubtless of high position hereafter, as of 
influence at i^resent. 

J. Thomas Stevenson is a Boston boy, Boston man, 
Boston merchant — in fact, Boston all over. Liberally edu- 
cated, eloquent, able, social, generous, commanding, he truth- 
fully represents the worth, wealth, intelligence and general 
excellence of the old Pilgrim city. He was born in 1807, 
received the advantages of the city schools and Harvard 
College, then entered upon mercantile pursuits, and soon 
reached the first place in his profession. In 1839 he first 
13 



154 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

entered the Legislature, and more or less since has been 
identified with the career and fame of the State. 

As a speaker, Mr. Stevenson has few superiors. His 
early liberal education, deepened and extended by an after 
life of active business habits, gives him the power to combine 
poetry and philosophy with great skill. He usually pre- 
pares his speeches beforehand, seldom making a set address 
without full-written notes in his pocket. His recent effort 
against the new liquor law, contains passages of portraiture of 
the evils of intemperance which cannot be exceeded in sub- 
limity and choice expression by any words in our language. 
He is a Whig in politics, a warm admirer of Mr. "Webster, 
and has a deep devotion to the interests of old Massachusetts. 
A benevolent, progressive sort of a man, but do n't want to 
go too fast ; in this last respect his prudential fear too fre- 
quently checks the most worthy impulses. A warm friend, 
devoted parent, estimable citizen. Many noble enterprises 
have received his support, and numerous official stations have 
been honored by his connection with them. 

He is now in the full maturity of manhood. Tall, pre- 
possessing, olive complexion, keen grey eyes, well-turned 
features, and dark hair considerably frosted by age. He 
affects a brown or snuff-colored coat for ordinary wear, but 
otherwise dresses in dark-hued garments. Graceful in atti- 
tude, fluent in speech, and able in argument, he is a mai'ked 
man in the lower branch. 

TiiOAiAS E. Pavson, of Rowley, Essex County, is a man 
of some character in the House. He is a stout, ruddy far- 
mer, of great practical sense and sln-ewdness, and can break 
up land or sophistical reasoning with ctjual facility. He 
distinguished himself in 1850, by a speech against an agri- 
cultural college for instruction in farming on scientific prin- 



CRAYON SKETCHES. 155 

ciples, — a hobby some of the Boston amateur agriculturists 
have ridden nearly to death — which was the speech of the 
session. Clear, forcible, sensible, he upset and utterly routed 
the theorists, and killed the measure as dead as flies in a 
poison-dish, in Summer time. He is a native of Rowley, — 
thirty-nine years of age. 

Otis P. Lord. — "When I entered the House I heard 
the ftxmiliar voice of a gentleman from Salem, who speaks 
too frequently for his own fame, and the edification of his 
colleagues, to say nothing about the welfare of his constitu- 
ents. It is quite evident he has a vast opinion of his own 
abilities, and if he is not the leader of the party to which he 
belongs, it is not owing to a superabundance of modesty on 
his part. He is a cautious man, and never ventures a step 
beyond the protecting wing of his party — a good party 
enough in the abstract, although it happens just now to be in 
a minority in Massachusetts. Mr. Lord is a man of respect- 
able talents, and although he stammers and blusters, now 
and then, he says some very good things. He is in the 
prime of life, of common height and good build ; dresses 
neatly, &c. His face is strongly marked, and indicates an 
arbitrary nature and aristocratic turn of mind. He looks 
like something between the silver grey and the blue stocking 
tribe. Has brown hair, blue eyes, broad forehead, and is of 
the sanguine-nervous temperament. He has in him the 
material for a good sea captain, or the leader of a legislative 
body. He is by profession a lawyer ; a native of Ipswich, 
and made his legislative debut in 1847. 



-'D' 



Moses Kihball is one of the proprietors, and chief man- 
ager of the Boston Museum, a place of unexceptionable 
amusement. As a caterer for the gratification of the curious 



156 CRAYON SKETCHES. 

and wonder-loving public, he has few rivals and no supe- 
riors. He is a slirewd, keen man of business, who knows 
how to touch the public purse-strings. In politics, he is 
something of a cross between a Whig and a Native Ameri- 
can ; he is a man of fair talents, with unconquerable deter- 
mination of purpose ; sociable, generous, and good-natured ; 
loves to see his neighbors prosper, providing their curiosity- 
shops are not too near his own. In matters of dress he is 
independent, foreswearing the use of dickeys. He is of 
medium stature, thick set, of sallow complexion, and has 
a full, fat face, indicative of good digestion ; hair dark, eyes 
light, voice feminine. 

It is quite evident he is ambitious of office, and good for- 
tune has smiled propitiously upon him, for he has been a 
prominent member of the City Government, and is now an 
active Kepresentative. 



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